Hustler 5BTV Antenna Series

A collection of my posts documenting installation and tuning of the Hustler 5BTV Antenna by the New-Tronics Corporation:

1. Hustler 5BTV Antenna Radial Installation
2. Hustler 5BTV Antenna Completed
3. Hustler 5BTV Antenna Performance Results
   

Hustler 5BTV Performance Results

Here are the performance results from the Hustler 5BTV (4BTV with 80M add-on). Click on the image for a larger view. This is the data before I built the final transceiver end 1:1 balun, its the temporary balun (black coax). Also, 80M was not tuned and 40M was not quite finished being tuned but close. 10M is also almost a 1.1:1 SWR across 28-29MHz band From left to right is MHz, SWR, resistive impedance, reactive impedance, and overall impedance.

A word to the wise, DO NOT BE FOOLED BY SWR! A perfect 1:1 SWR does not mean that the antenna performs well or radiates efficiently. a 50 ohm resistor at the end of the coax with give a 1:1 SWR but I can guarantee that you will not contact anyone unless the sunspot cycle is incredibly active, there are stories of people making contacts on dummy loads... but you get my point!

The most important column is the reactive impedance (Xs) information. The Hustler 5BTV antenna is resonant when the reactive impedance is 0 ohms. The closer to 0 ohms the more efficient the antenna is at radiating the RF. Even if this value shows an SWR of >2:1. Yes, there will be loss in the coax due to the SWR mismatch but more of the RF getting to the antenna will be radiated.



A great explanation of this is on the ARRL TIS (Technical Information Service) article titled "Why an Antenna Radiates" written by By Kenneth Macleish, W7TX
in QST November 1992.

"Both kinds of resistance dissipate energy at a rate equal to the resistance times the square of the current. Of course, energy dissipated this way doesn't actually disappear. An alternating current, flowing against radiation resistance, turns electrical energy into radiant energy, which wings its way off into space. Current flowing against ohmic resistance transforms electrical energy into heat, which is mechanical vibration of the atoms of the conductor -- the atoms vibrate when they're hit by the moving free electrons"

I hope this post helps and provided a lot of information on the Hustler 5BTV antenna as well as a better understanding of antennas in general. While I haven't perfectly tuned the antenna yet its in "the ballpark"! Please let me know any comments or suggestions or if you have any questions!

Bryce
KB1LQC

Hustler 5BTV Antenna Completed

I finished my Hustler 5BTV (5 Band Trapped Vertical) antenna and here are some pictures to show it while testing and prior to burying the coaxial cable.

First off, here is the radial base which does not employ a radial base plate. I simply attached the radials to the base mount. The base of the antenna is 4" off the ground per the instructions from Newtronics/DX Engineering.


The radials fan out and fake the antenna into thinking the ground is more conductive than it really is. The more radials the better. I plan to eventually keep adding radials over time, some longer ones, maybe 1/4 wavelength at 80M over 180 degrees could happen, the other 180 is about 10 feet from my property line, so I'm not going to bother! Many small radials along the property line will do a lot better than the current zig-zag I have right now.

I wound a coaxial cable 1:1 choke balun with the RG-8 and a 6.5" paint can as a form (in the background). The manual asks for 6" but this is fine and its not critical to get exactly 6 inches. The balun simple stops any induced (from the energy being radiated by the antenna) RF traveling down the outside of the coaxial shield as there should be NONE, due to the skin effect it stays on the inside shield of the coaxial cable closest to the center. The balun DOES NOT inhibit the RF in the cable, only on the outside. I made sure it would keep its form, hence the duct tape, while the RG-8 provides enought stiffness with plenty of margine! I used wire ties going through a slit in the duct tape on the second, and second to last windings to provide strain relief for any tension on the coax.

Ok, the next picture is not really good I will appologize for the blurryness (I would love to own a Nikon D80 SLR after taking a non-photo major photo course at RIT... but my point and shoot has to do!). Using a borrowed MFJ-296 Antenna Analyzer I tested and tuned the antenna. The Hustler 5BTV requires that a choke balun be placed no more than 8 feet from the antenna AS WELL AS 8 feet from the transciever. If you do have one you MUST have both, they trap the RF on the outside shield to bounce between each balun, eventually attenuating (turning into heat). If the second is not used at the transmitter there will be a large SWR mismatch (>31:1 according to the MFJ-269). I wound a quick test balun with some spare coaxial cable. During this testing I identified the corroded adapter near the antenna feedpoint which was eventually replaced so that no adapter was needed. I also located myself as far as possible from the antenna while measuring to reduce any influence I may have on the antenna.

Lastly here is the final balun that is now used with the Yaesu FT-897 transciever on 80-10M in the radio room (shack!). I bought some high quality Belden RG-58 from my local independent electronics supplier, and its definitly nice stuff! It uses both a braid and foil for the outer shield and has a stranded center conductor (better flexing). Again, the paint can was used for a form and tape holds the windings together with wire ties at both ends for strain relief.


Results

No tuner is used ( I use mine in bypass mode) and the antenna is close to a 2:1 match on all bands! The bandwidth on 80M is only good for the phone band but its not the greatest resonater down that low either! I was up testing the transciever balun around 1 AM Sunday July 26, 2009 and heard several VK stations! That's Austrailia which I have rarely ever heard. What struck me as amazing was that I was on 20M (14 MHz) at 1:30AM listening to Austrailia. First off, most of the time 20 meters dies at night and while there was probably some great propagation that night as compared to normal, being able to clearly hear several station in VK land with such little background noise was amazing. The Hustler 5BTV definitly turned from a fancy aluminum rod shoved into the ground into a vertical antenna with a low takoff angle. The radial system is the difference between night and day!

I have linked to the audio recording of VK4MA that was heard on the Hustler 5BTV. Notice how little background noise there is considering my area of Massachusetts is relatively noisy. I switched to no antenna near the end but didn't edit it out of the recording.

Audio Recording at 1:30AM on the Hustler 5BTV hearing VK4MA on 14.260 MHZ

I hope this article provides enjoyment and some pointers. Feel free to contact me for any questions regarding this antenna or anything else on your mind! I have notice people tweeting some of my posts and really appreciate that others enjoy some of my projects and experiences! Thanks!

Bryce

School Club Roundup 2008 - Day 1

School Club Roundup is an annual contest that is aimed for school amateur radio clubs. I started participating in it when my brother Brent and I founded the Chelmsford High School Amateur Radio Club KB1NAY in 2005. Click on the name of this post to find out more info about the contest.

RIT Amateur Radio Club K2GXT Daily Dispatch:

SCHOOL CLUB ROUNDUP DAILY DISPATCH
11:46 PM, Monday, February 11, 2008

Operating Hours: 4.34
Voice Contacts: 1
Digital Contacts: 1
Current Score: 9

1 State Contacted:
FLORIDA

1 Radio Club Contacted:
W4LX

So we didn't have much luck. We are pretty sure that our G5RV is "dead" we are in the process of building an Off Center Fed Dipole to replace it (I will post my power point presentation on a later post). Our beam is only made for 20 meters (14 MHz) and higher, it will tune on 40 but we haven't had much luck with that.

The best option we have might be to get on 20 meters during the day and operate, we will see how that works out! Good luck to all those who are participating!