For the last few days I’ve really been stretching the legs of the 6BTV out a little. Well, as much as 100 watts will stretch it out. My most recent QSO’s have been mainly on 20 meter and some countries I’ve worked: Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Lithuania being my furthest (4400 miles). I can say I’m very pleased with the antenna. After brewing over which one to go with and realizing how important radials are in a vertical scenario I feel I’ve made the correct decision.

As of today I finished a more permanent installation of the RF choke utilizing RG-8x and terminating the transmission line to the DX Engineering radial plate and installing a 1ft jumper between the radial plate bulkhead and antenna socket.

Also to note, when I did all this, my SWR’s dropped even further on all bands except 80, of which shot up from 1.1 to 1.5 as the lowest in the band. 40 meter is still a little high for my liking 1.7:1 to 2.5:1 for my band permissions. With a little more tuning and possibly chopping 2 inches off of the 40m section, I should be able to swing it into a 1.2:1 or so.