"Crazy George" wrote in message ...
I played with the Hustler when it was introduced, and got the impression it
was a loser 40 years ago. I now wonder if that lower mast is purposely
lossy. Or maybe just accidentally lossy and they ran with it. Looks good
on SWR meters which hams are infamous for.

The hustlers I tried had pretty lossy coils. I've never seen any
problems with the solid masts, but I've never tried the folding type.
In theory, they should be ok also, unless they have a problem with
dirt or corrosion. But the coils....
I hate those things....I once did a comparison using a large 80m
resonator against the coil on my homebrew plastic bugcatcher. It wuz
ugly...My homebrew coil was much less lossy. I'll never use a hustler
coil for anything serious. And being I'm always serious, that means
never... :/ MK