Hustler 6BTV Installation and Alterations

I feel I am becoming the original grumpy old man but sometimes I do feel justified.

The Hustler was delivered yesterday and without going in to too many details, I had questioned the seller about how old the antenna was (a claimed 3 months) but on arrival and inspection it was obvious it was much older. 

There was corrosion and rust and some connections looked very worn, added to the fact that the seller had mysteriously sold a hustler antenna the week before with the exactly the same pictures and description except that one was highlighted as 6 months old, I was naturally suspicious. 
He assured me it was a different antenna and that a friend of his on seeing he was selling a hustler asked him to sell his, (yeah right)! 

Anyway, grump over and after a thorough inspection check, all parts were duly ticked off and I knew I could work with the antenna. I would however have to give it a good clean and at the same time add a few of my own minor accessories.

Thankfully having a motorbike I have all the metal cleaners you could wish for and I spent most of the day cleaning up each segment and traps, it’s by no means perfect but looks a lot better, I now just need to spray on some Krylon coating to keep it protected.

I also looked in to buying the DX engineering direct coax feed connector and tilt base plate which is supplied via a dealer here in the UK. The coax feeder £27.98 plus postage, the tilt over base plate (are you sitting down) £79.94 plus postage! 

I'm sorry but someone is taking the mick here how does it cost nearly £80 for a metal plate with a few holes in? 

Anyway the coax feeder looked pretty straightforward to build and I'd fabricated one within the morning. The tilt over base plate will take a little longer as I've had to order some aluminium plate but for the price of £6.50 I'm quite happy to wait, as it really doesn't take too long to drill a few holes and cut out some small slots.

This plate for the coax connector was cut from an old aluminium roofing slot I needed to shape one side of the plate to fit round the antenna, drill some holes for the attachment nuts and also drill a hole and fit the actual connector.

The antenna core wire was then soldered to the connector core and the other end will then attach to the antenna centre screw

I cleaned up the base then added the completed connector and finally added the ground wire which will be connected up to my radial base. The antenna will be separate from the ground radial plate, hence the ground wire.

The completed item doesn't look too bad and cost me nothing but a mornings work. The base has come up quite well so if I can get the rest of the antenna looking as good I shall be rather pleased.

There's not much else I can do now except carrying on with the clean up and wait for the aluminium plate to arrive to build the tilt over base.

More to follow when I get the ali plate.