Hustler 6-BTV Vertical antenna, 10-80m, 24ft, 1kW

This antenna should be designed with the fold-over mast as part of the base of this antenna. It’s like it’s supposed to be there to even try to tune this guy up! Start on 10m or the first trap and section and work up. The DX engineering manual on this antenna for tuning is awesome! Though for counterpoise, I’ve found for a minimal but most effective solution with 4 full 1/4 wavelength resonant on the lowest band of operation. The more the Merrier but 4 worked in each direction for me on my compass. Performance is close to a 1/4 wave on 40m - 10m75m is more like a mobile performance wise. It is a resonant antenna though and tunes to a perfect 50 ohms with shunt coil if one must. Lol these radios and their sensitive fold back circuit for swr and antenna issues!

So overall it is a nice, quality antenna built with good materials and at a reasonable price.My only gripe is that it is designed for use without radials, but since radials improve performance and efficiency so much, it really should be offered in 2 versions. One for use with an extensive radial field, and one without. The radial version should have the traps pre-tuned for the expected impedance, and should come with whatever values of inductance or capacitance necessary to match the antenna to the feedline. At 40m, for example, the lowest point of the SWR "dip" is 1.74:1. The band edges are over 3:1 on the high end and just under 3:1 on the low end. I need to get put there with a VNA and look at the Smith chart to see what kind of components I will need to add to bring this down to a more suitable match.If it had that work already done and included the necessary matching components, it would be 5 stars.

Let me Be Clear From The Start I Have a Hustler 5-BTV Vertical HF Antenna Not a 6BTV But The Only Difference between the 4BTV & 5BTV & The 6BTV is The 4Btv don't do 80m or 30M The 5Btv Don't Do 30m(Its cw Only so no big Deal) But All Three Antennas are More or Less The Same Just one or two More Bands an like i said i don't do cw so Didn't Need It I Have My Hustler 5BTV Ground Mounted 4 inches from The Ground With No Radials & I Have Talked All Over The Place on Just 100w & For a HF Vertical Ant The Hustler BTV Ant Is Very Very Hard To Beat ! I Really Like Mine it is Resonant on all Bands other Than 80m & it is Pretty Narrow But I Have it Tuned for the Middle of The General Band And It Works Very Well ! One Other Thing I Bought mine from some one Other Than Amazon & saved 150$+ so Just Do Ya Research & You may find the Same Place i Did if Your Already a Ham ! I Think my Farthest Contact is 6-7,000 Miles ! These Are Not A Local Talking ANT These Are For DX & They Are Great At It IMHO ! Follow The Manual Take Your Time & Tune It Properly & You Will Be Set ! O + you Can Easily Add The 12 & 17M Band To These As Well !Thanks for Reading & Hope It Helps !

The antenna is the most critical element in your modern HF radio setup. With a little ingenuity and some relatively inexpensive supplies you can transmit and receive clear signals to and from very long distances. This antenna is mounted on the ground with a ground wire radial system. Assemble the antenna using Burndy Penetrox A Electrical Joint Compound (8oz bottle, only used about 2oz) (Amazon)This installation is set into a tree stump at ground level using a 1 3/8" hole drilled 18" deep to hold a 30" black pipe with a cap (to keep water out) to provide a sturdy clamp mount for the antenna. PDF Instructions for proper assembly can be downloaded free from the DXEngineering.com website. Homemade groundplane wire distribution made from a square piece of 3/4" outdoor plywood covered with a scrap piece of copper roofing material, with a 1 3/8" center hole, secured to stump with 3" stainless steel lag bolts, and 4 electrical panel grounding bars ($5-7 Lowes or Home Depot) attached directly against the copper with three screws in each bar provide the secure attach point for ground radial wires. A bare copper grounding wire from the antenna base is passed around each bar through two of the holes in the bar and secured with the grounding screws. For the radials, two 500' rolls of 20 gauge PetSafe (R) RFA-1 (Amazon) were fashioned into 22' to 32' radial wires. The 20 gauge copper wire is thin and sturdy, and about 90% as effective as the recommended 14 gauge, but a lot less expensive. (Get three rolls of the PetSafe wire if you have the room for a 64' diameter circle).The ground wires are held in place by 150 11 gauge steel 6"X1"x6" square top commercial grade Landscape staples / fabric anchor pins from Pinnacle Mercantile (Amazon). Because the 20 gauge PetSafe wire is thin, non-insulated Butt Connectors 22-18 gauge wire, 100 pack (Amazon) were crimped all the way through against the stripped bare ground radial wire to provide a sturdy end to secure under the screws in the grounding bars with 11 holes each for 44 ground radials.The antenna guy anchors are fashioned from parachute cord (Amazon) attached to tent stakes and center guide is made from the plastic cover from an old smoke detector (Kidde) by drilling 3 equidistant 1/4" holes in the edge and a 1 1/4" hole in the center. Place on antenna just above a trap using a clamp.Recommend using an automatic antenna tuner with this antenna, like MFJ-929, or a manual antenna tuner like MFJ-969. Since I'm using the antenna out of the Amateur bands, getting low SWR required addition of an MFJ-914 AutoTuner Extender to get near 1:1 (below 1:2 SWR) at nearly all frequencies from 2mHz to 30mHz.Antenna used several times a day on National Nets with great results receiving and reaching stations all across America coast to coast.

Hustler is a great antenna . I am using 5th wheel frame for ground but does not compare with prescribed radials which I cannot do. I’ve worked 20 and 40 with current setup. Nicely made product.

On 40 mtrs, had to cut, shorten the 40 element, then go back and retune the antenna.

The antenna is easy to assemble but becomes unwieldy to handle once assembled. Tuning can be time consuming but performance is very good. Made several contacts in Texas and Florida from Ohio as soon as it was erected.

Took about a week or more to come to my house. I chose this antenna because it was purported to have good performance without ground radials. WRONG!