[Drake] Antenna Question...

[Dan W. Dooley]

I concur on the Butternut.  I have the HF9V and have been most pleased with
it.  Rather than the more common ground mount practice, mine is elevated to
about 18 ft at the base with tuned radials to cover all bands.  I'll also
agree that tuning is tricky but once done, all bands will perform quite
well.  I'd not want to try setting it up without my 259B analyzer.

We have to consider that it is "only a vertical" so comparing it to a beam
for performance on any of the higher bands is not fair.  Neither would it be
fair to compare it to a full sized dipole.  That is assuming one can get a
dipole to an ideal height.  Since that is often impractical (at 40 or 80 m
for example), the Butternut is going to perform better than the more usual
dipole installations.  I believe.

I've used mine on all bands 80 - 6 with good results.  Much of my operation
is QRP and with 2 watts of power on the digital modes I've been able to work
even a significant amount of DX.  With 100 watts SSB I've been able to be
reasonably competitive in many DX pileups on the higher bands.  I've broken
some pretty significant pileups on some DXpeditions.  Someone made comments
about the low angle of radiation and I can vouch for that.  On 80 meters,
last year (I've not been on this year due to a long period of unemployment)
I had coverage over the entire continental U.S. and into Canada running 3
watts on PSK31.  Bandwidth on 80 is really narrow but that's to be expected.
Just pick the part of the band you use most.

Sure, a beam would be better for the higher bands but if you're limited and
that is not an option and if you don't have an excess of real-estate to run
long wires, and especially if you can't get them high enough, a good
vertical should be considered.  Get it up as high as you can and put a
ground plane on it if possible will help loads.

73

Dan W. Dooley WB5TKA
 email: dandooley@pipeline.com
 http://www.dooleystreasurechest.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "W2SR - Robert I. Block" <W2SR@trackdata.com>
To: <drake@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 6:25 AM
Subject: [Drake] Antenna Question...


> If you're considering a multiband vertical, the Butternut HF-6V and
> HF-9V should be on your short list.
> All multiband verticals are compromises, but I find that Butternut
> performs exceptionally well on 20 and 15 Meters, OK on 10, 30, and 40
> Meters, and as good as a 26 foot antenna can be on 80 Meters.  17, 12,
> and 6 work, but in retrospect, I'm not sure they justify getting the 9V
> rather than the 6V.
>
> Multiband verticals use various tricks to present acceptable impedance
> and patterns on the various bands.  The tricks used by the Butternuts
> are efficient but require careful adjustment.  I used an Autek VA1; the
> process can be tedious with only an SWR bridge.