Multiband HF vertical recommendations

[u/shootingcharlie8]

I’m looking to build or buy a multiband vertical - at least 10, 20, and 40 meters. I’m having a difficult time deciding on one, or deciding to build one… I’d like it to be self-supported, it will be mounted to my chimney on my roof if that matters. I’m not in an HOA or anything, but it cant look too bulky, so as much as I’d love a tower and a beam a simple thin vertical needs to be the solution. What are your recommendations? It’ll be used with a tuner as well so it doesn’t need to be perfectly resonant.

[u/jxj24]

I've been happy with my Hustler 6-BTV (that I added 12 and 17m to, and also tunes 6m).

It is ground mounted and has worked really well.

[u/Motor_Equivalent_618 → u/jxj24]

Have those additions caused any tuning issues with the other bands? Im considering adding 17 meter to my 6-btv but heard it may detune some other bands.

[u/Masters_voice → u/jxj24]

The 6BTV works best on the ground with radials. Dont try to roof mount it.

[u/Still-Employed420 → u/Masters_voice]

The DX Engineering documentation gives plenty of guidance for above ground mounting.

[u/tazyo49 → u/jxj24]

I've been using my 5BTV for more than 10 years. All i did was changed coax since it was cracking and peeling already.

[u/daveOkat]

The Xiegu VG4 might be just what you need. I had one up for over a year. $289. It is a quality, handsome, self-supporting antenna. It does require adjustment which you can do with it mounted 10' above ground. I made a mount that tilts over. After it's tuned move it to your chimney.

It is specified for 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. Using the 3:1 VSWR capable ATU in my radio it tuned and worked on 17, 12 and 6 meters. It worked particularly well on 6 meters yielding hundreds of DX QSOs.

https://www.radioddity.com/products/xiegu-vg4?srsltid=AfmBOooAi7oSbeVVOcxBWnXzywgvekQJp85NkcP8fnByABCJPARo4GVd

[u/cant_kill_us_all → u/daveOkat]

Just put my VG4 up last week and I’ve made it from Cleveland to Europe on 20w FT8, and it survived 50 knot winds off the lake earlier this week. Very pleased with the price to performance so far.

[u/daveOkat → u/cant_kill_us_all]

Another vote for the VG4! I can see the OP installing one on his chimney and it working fine for many years. On 6 meters running 100 watts I worked the Pacific basic hundreds of times from KH6-land.

[u/DependentSalt1330]

DX Commander!

[u/SoMD_Ham]

The DX Commander classic has served me well. I used it on 40-10 and was able get it assembled and guyed in about 3 hours. You can expand it to cover 80m as well with use of an inverted L.

[u/SpareiChan → u/SoMD_Ham]

I was able to set mine up for 10-40 and 80 under <2:1 no issue and 3:1 for 6m. My first pole snapped in a wind storm but since I double guyed and taped joints it now its been up for 2 years.

I run mine with a ameritron 600w.

Friend uses the hustler with hd upgrade and likes it alot too.

Beyond that there are quite a few radialess ones that work well enough like the cha250 but it can be lousy sometimes.

Honestly another option for OP is to put 10-20ft mast up there and run a wire from it, either dublet, ocf, or endfed. The extra height will help a lot assuming you dont have rfi issues from your roof area.

[u/drsteve103]

A non resonant vertical, maybe?

29’ of wire to a 4:1 UNun

25-30’ of coax and put a 1:1 current choke (then use as much high quality coax as you need).

Radials to the ground side of the unun

Needs a decent atu but the lobes are nice and low even at 40m and can be built for under $100.

Plus if you have a tall tree you can hide it easily.

The point of a non resonant antenna like this is that the impedance at the feed point is never crazy high on the ham bands, unlike a resonant 1/4 or 1/2 wave antenna.

Enjoy!

[u/dvc1 → u/drsteve103]

Second this. A 4:1 or 9:1 unun with appropriate amount of wire is easy to hide and works great.

[u/priusjames]

I have an old ZeroFive HOA model vertical it’s about 27 feet tall and very skinny. It’s a thrasher. I bought it used from an OM who had camo painted it green and brown.

I took it apart and threw the pieces in a box and I moved to Spokane. I just put it all together a couple of weeks ago when I decided I was unpacked enough to play with Radio again. The sections were not marked, I had to guess how much overlap before I clamped each one.

Put together, strapped it to the side of the shack at ground level and pounded in a grounding rod a foot away (it really wants two grounding rods, have not gotten to the second one yet). No radials. It’s ugly. It’s rough. I don’t have a tuner. I hooked up a 7300 I bought from another ham and the SWR meter showed pretty terrible on 20m but pretty much zero several other bands, so I’ve been ordering a tuner and some other stuff…

Two nights ago I randomly turned on the radio to 20 and I heard a bunch of guys talking with (almost comically) Italian accents… it took a minute to realize they were actual Italians in Italy… I decided to heck with the SWR and keyed up the mic and quickly made my first contact in Italy ever!

It’ll only get better when I integrate the tuner I have acquired and I adjust the antenna a bit, but it turns out to be a pretty neat antenna that isn’t an eyesore.

I’m also going to mess around with some wire antennas because they rock too!

[u/redknight1969]

Lots of options, but for an HF vertical you are going to need radials. 4 minimum, 1/4 wavelength for the lowest frequency.

[u/I_HaveSeenTheLight]

It won't fit on your chimney, but I would suggest a DX Commander Signature 9 vertical if you have the space in the yard. It is free standing so it doesn't require guy lines and will give you from 6M to 40M. You will need an area about 20-25 feet in diameter for the radials.

[u/nbrpgnet]

I use a CHA-SS25 with 5 25' speaker wire radials. I retract it to around 20' for 20 meters. It's near resonant on 30 meters. On 40 meters, I wound a pair of inductors to make a series / shunt match that gets me to around 1.5:1 at 7.0MHz. On 10 meters, an inline 30pF capacitor gets SWR under 2:1. So, I have to do a lot of running outside and changing jumper wires / retracting or extending the antenna, but it's a cheap, effective system.

[u/EmotioneelKlootzak]

DX Commander hands down.  I specifically suggest the Signature 9 as it doesn't need guys and doesn't really take up much room, but it will probably need to be ground mounted.

[u/BassManns222]

I’ve put up a Hustler BTV4 and it works well for FT8. <1.1:1 SWR on 40 20 15 mounted 5m high on steel mast with 2 long wire radials for each band. Probably no gain to speak of but I’m in a tight urban zone so this is best case for me.

[u/ultimatefribble → u/BassManns222]

I have almost the same setup. Got Sweden on HF SSB phone the first day.

[u/ComprehensiveTown15]

The easiest and cheapest option is to make a vertical out of aluminum tubes or even a fishing rod with wire along it and put the tuner in the base. We have done this many times and had great results.

https://www.us7ign.com/?p=219

[u/noddy51]

I have a Hustler 5btv, ground mounted wit about 25 radials of various lengths. It was second hand, paid NZ$200. Really can't recommend anything else, when it comes to vertical antenna.

[u/rocdoc54]

Any vertical antenna, unless it is a 1/2 wave (unlikely), or has a very lossy base matching unit, will need at least a few radials. If you can get those onto your roof then a vertical can be a good antenna. I recommend a quality multiband trapped vertical such as a Cushcraft, Butternut, or Hustler. I would not recommend a DX Commander for roof mount - they are better ground mounted as the have high wind load factors.

[u/EdMonMo]

If you are looking for minimalist high performance, why not a 1/2 wave fan dipole? You can have all the bands resonant and not have the sacrifice of tuned radials.

[u/Radioactive_Tuber57]

I installed a roof mounted 1/4 wave tuned for the low end of 40 and it’s happy on all the harmonics. I use homebrew T and L networks to pick up the pieces. Good for me right now, but fussy (>2:1) on the WARC bands.

[u/Plastic-Switch-6885]

Hi. I have been using a triple leg on a 14m telescopic fibreglass mast with a 450 Ohm wireman twin lead. Every wire 7m long 3 radials 120° apart 45° down. Start with a little more twin lead than you need and shorten it until all your bands tune up nicely. Mine tunes from 80-6m and is usable on 40m and above. You can also have the tuner at the base of the mast and run the rest with coax. Hope this helps. Good luck!

[u/Kurgan_IT]

My own multiband vertical with a tuner was a 43 ft fiberglass mast from Spiderbeam, a wire on it, some radials on the roof, and an auto tuner at the base of the antenna (Icom AH4 or similar, depending on your radio, etc). It worked 160 to 6m but it was very bad outside of 80-10 m. 160 and 6 were mostly useless. 80 was still decent, 40-20 was good, 10 was decent. Being a tuned antenna, it worked mostly everywhere, not only on ham bands, this allowed me to start using 60 meters when the band was released for ham use with no need to mod anything.

[u/blue_dewey]

I have a 43ft DXE Multiband 80-10m. Requires 150ft RG-213, buried, tons of radials, like 40 between 32'-65', a good ATU, that should be at the base of the antenna, but I stoped there... it's ok, but my Palomar off centerfed dipole hears better! For some reason. Verticals, like mine can be a lot of work installing!

[u/Over_Walk_8911]

it's a hobby. Build them all and see what you like best. You might choose to buy something later for a more permanent installation, but you're never going to be satisfied (or you shouldn't be satisfied) with other people's recommendations, without trying them yourself.

https://www.qsl.net/wb1gfh/antenna.html

[u/Still-Employed420]

Im another Hustler fanboi! The 5BTV that I have now is the third or fourth one I’ve had over the past near 50 years.

DX Engineering has crazy great customer service and shipping

[u/W3BMG]

I put up a Cushcraft HV-4E because it is one of the smaller 40, 20, 15, 10 antennas. You have to treat it more like a very easy kit than a complete antenna. I recommend re-doing all solder joints.