Well it has been over 4 months since I installed the 5BTV antenna here at home.  I have logged over 200 contacts to North America, Europe, and Africa with this antenna.  I have contested with the antenna and cleared pileups on the second try (routinely) running only 100W.  Let me say, this update is well overdue.  My opinions on this antenna have done nothing but improve with some minor work done by this operator.

First of all, let me stress that this is an antenna you should be putting thought in to.  It’s not a simple dipole antenna you can set up in a day and use.  You need to plan out your radials well in advance.  If you opt to do like I do, you can use a trenching shovel to bury them easy.  What I did was make a long groove in the yard with the trenching shovel.  Just push the earth apart in to a V shape.  Then, run along with the wire and something plastic to push it down in the V.  Finally, walk along the sides of the V to push it back together.

This method worked great and with a few hours a day over a couple of days I was able to bury 6 ground radials with length from 15 feet to 40 feet.  I did end up connecting in to the fence for additional ground, but I used some sandpaper to clean up the connections first, which made a big difference.

Most importantly is how you connect the ground radials to the antenna.  At first I just wrapped the copper wires around a bolt and used some washers.  This proved effective, at first; however the connections quickly tarnished.  Something better is needed.  DX Engineering sells something which looks great, but it’s expensive.  What I opted to do was use a cable guard box from another project I had laying around.  I combined this with a grounding bar I purchased at a hamfest for a buck, and a ground block which I have all too many of from years ago.  This made a nice, solid, waterproof connection.