6-BTV Antenna Installation
Fitting a Hustler 6-BTV into my new QTH
Intro
After moving house from somewhere I could only fit a small antenna on the roof without upsetting the neighbours to a property with slightly more space but equally restrictive deeds and the potential for upsetting those around I chose a 6-BTV because of its low visual impact and that I could install in and it’s radials where it would give the lowest chance of upsetting those around. So I bought one through DX engineering whilst I was in the US along with the radial plate which after paying duty etc was cheaper than getting one from a UK store, $100 to get the parts and $35 duty and admin fees to bring it through as oversized luggage so all in all better than £220 in the UK!
Where to put it
As you can see from the picture my garden is small and overlooked, it’s obviously a new estate where there is nothing really to block views yet (click on the photo to see a larger view)
My original choice was as far from the house as possible and the gravel area was chosen but after a trial installation I decided after some gentle persuasion from ‘er indoors that it was a little obtrusive and that I should move it closer to the decking.
Setting up
I know that the more radials the better and the longer they are the better but as with a lot of radio gear there is a compromise and so I settled on 18 radials in the end after laying out as many as I could on the ground up to lengths of 20 metres (1/4 wave of 80m). This equated to just a shade under 200m of cable.
So after cutting the cables I crimped and soldered on tinned earth crimps and heat shrunk using adhesive heat shrink). The crimps were to water-resistant as living near the sea it doesn’t take long for the salt to corrode everything. That took an evening to do along with coiling up the cables, ready for installing the next day
Installing
There are two methods of getting the radials in the ground, you can dig them in or pin them to the surface and let the worms do their bit. I chose the former as it was a November day and there really wasn’t much to be gained in not making sure the radials were well located. With this in mind I can thoroughly recommend an edging tool and a stick. Mark out where the radials are going just by laying them on the grass and ‘edge’ away into the grass to the full depth of the tool, in my case around 50mm. Your garden does look like a maze but good preparation is worth it in the long run.
Using the ‘stuffing stick’ push the cable into the ground and after n hour or so the radials are in their rightful place. As the ground was damp but not soggy I could simple walk over the cables to close the gaps in the soil. If all this has worked then there should be no need to sort out a rats next and a simple installation can be done. Quite a few of my radials went under me decking so I spent some more time crawling around under there just to sort them out, there wasn’t too much room but enough not to be too uncomfortable.
Finishing up
I connected all the cables loosely with the plate secured about 75mm off the ground on a pole that I sunk 1 metre into the ground. it would have been nice to get more pole in but there was something rather hard in the ground and it wasn’t going any further and was actually bending. Back to the radial plate. Once everything was very secure I covered the bolts with a high modulus sealant (I used a B&Q roof and gutter sealant) so to protect these connections. Lower the plate and bolt the clamp tightly and the radial plate is in the radials are in the ground and all that’s left was assembling the antenna and installing.
The instructions for the antenna were good enough for me so I wont go into them here as I don’t think I can add anything extra. Below are a few photos to help but feel free to contact me on PSK31 or SSB or post a comment below and I’ll fill in the gaps. Altogether I can recommend DX engineering products, especially the radial plate and their helpful staff. Find them at www.dxengineering.com
Congrats on a nice description and setup.
Perhaps you can also post a picture with
the antenna completely mounted.
How is it performing for you?
take care, 73
I’ve taken the antenna down for the winter as we get some high winds at my qth and a lot of salt spray so unless the day is nice the antenna stays in the garage. I’ll take a photo when it’s up and post it here.
The antenna is very good, the qth isn’t great for eaterly signals due to the hills directly behind the house but westerly direction the signals are excellent. I can regularly get SSB to the US with just a few watts and when I run Faros with the 6-BTV over a long wire the results are generally an s point or two higher.
The only issue i have is with corrosion resistance of the feed point. It’s an open joint which leads to corrosion of the internal threads so sealing will be a key aspect to keep a good contact.
73′s
Alex, g7kse
A really impressive installation. I’ve used the 4 btv version for some 5 years at my existing qth with good results & without guying. Recently the antenna has been converted to a 6 btv – is there such a thing as a commercially made guy clamp on the market ?
I suffer from the same swaying about and often take mine down. It’s likely that the bottom section will fail at some point, fortunately there are spares about.
I’m not sure if there are any guying kits that are about in the uk but DX engineering in the US have loads of extras and they are very helpful. try here http://www.dxengineering.com/Products.asp?ID=187&SecID=91&DeptID=32 regards
Alex, g7kse
Nice setup you have there, I have installed a 6btv in my garden which is only 3×11 metres! it’s in the centre on the lawn, (the XYL allowed this) because of the garden construction itself, it’s soil down to 1 foot then hard core, I decided to concrete a steel post in (18in),then I mounted the antenna on to that I installed the DX radial plate with 24 quite short radials(longest was 2.5m shortest about 1m) but it made no difference atall to the signals, either out or in!! but still have s5-7 noise I am just about to installa couple of copper earth rods (if I can!!) to see if it makes any difference
73′ Did you try your setup without radials first?
Dave
Thanks for your comments David. I didn’t try it without radials and have had mixed results so far. I think I need to do some analysis to see how effective it is as I’m not convinced that the % effectiveness is very high.
S5-7 noise sounds quite high to me. Do you think that is antenna based or as a function of the qth?
Hopefully this summer i’ll be able to do some comparisons against a cobwebb and a long wire to be a bit more objective.
You can easily add the WARC bands (17m and 12m) to these aerials for next to no cost: use a quarter wavelength vertical wire for each band, space them either side of the main vertical about 4 inches, suspended from a bamboo cane tie-wrapped to the main vert, with another at the bottom to keep it away from the main vert, then use a hose-clip to attach the wires to the bottom section feedpoint. Bingo!
I’ve experimented with radials, mine works a treat with about 16.
73
Darrell G0HVQ
Just installed the 6-btv. It’s mounted on a 4″x4″ fencepost that is concreted into the ground about two feet. Used the DX engineering tilt base (a must!), but with no radials. It shows an swr of 1.6/1 on 29Mhz,tapering to 5.0/1 0n 7.075 Mhz. As this is a steady rise across the bands, any ideas? Reception is good, and it is not particularly noisy on any of the bands. It tunes up nicely with an MFJ993B ATU, but this is obviously not the ideal scenario!
What’s the general layout with buildings etc? Mine is about 2.5m from the house and mounted into the ground with a scaffold pole with about 1m into the ground.
Also I’d check the gaps on the traps as they have a habit of wiggling out of position in winds.
Borrowing and antenna analyser will help to find were it is resonant and then you can adjust starting at 10m then working down or rather up to 80m. I found it a bit of a fiddle at first.
The aerial is about 4m from the house, but more or less open other than that with a field to the opposite side to the house. I think the traps are OK, as they were only checked a week or so back. It is about resonant on 10m, but it’s just the uncanny way it gradually increases across the bands! Going to try a ground spike/earth rod as close as possible to the antenna base next, as there are no radials fitted. Will keep you posted! (Any ideas in the meantime…………………)
I’m thinking that the first trap for 10m is ok but the rest are resonant outside the band and each one is just a bit more than the previous. I’m not sure the ground spike will answer everything as I’m fairly certain its not tuned for a no radials set up. But it might play a part and it would be worth seeing is there is anything the dx engineering website has to show about it.
Can you find out where the swr is lowest by tuning about and see if it is rising or falling as you move across the band and get a trend of where the swr is going.
I don’t think the house is playing a part in it so we can rule that out. I’m not a betting man but I’m backing the traps being out of tune. Remember you’ve got to work up the band and small movements can turn into big swings in swr. If you can borrow an analyser that will make life a lot easier. Our club has one than the members can borrow as they are £250 which is a life saver.
Had a look on the DXengineering website. They reckon that radials are a must. I haven’t got a lot of space at my qth, but put two radials at 180 degrees to each other. These were only about 3 metres long, insulated at the ends, but the difference was unbelievable! The vswr on 80 dropped from 8:1 down to 3.5:1, and on 20 dropped from 3.5:1 to 1.5:1, measured at approximately mid-band. If I can get a couple more radials in, I think i’m in the ball park! Will post on progress.
That’s interesting, Hustler claim that it doesn’t need radials and I’d imagine that they do improve efficiency quite a lot. I suppose that a low vswr doesn’t always mean its resonant but its crucial for our rigs!
If its any help I can sympathise and am struggling to get the swr at a reasonable level for my ‘scrap wire 5/8 vertical on 6m’. Let me know how you get on.
Alex
Check out the ‘flagpole’ idea which will protecct yours from the sea air.
http://www.dxengineering.com/pdf/flagpole_antenna.pdf
I like the idea but trouble is my wife would want the Saltire and being English I couldn’t have that. Seriously it look like a very sensible solution as rainwater is equally an issue as it affects both the swr and life of the antenna.