Which vertical - HF9V?

[G0HVQ]

Phew, what a question - which vertical shall I get ?

Right, here's the situation - the vertical will be ground mounted in open farmland with a clear takeoff in all directions, with plenty of room for radials. Quite a windy location, though.

Not particularly interested in the lower HF bands (40 and 80) but would really like the WARC bands as 17m is my current favourite at solar minimum. During solar max I tend to spend most time on 10m and 15m. And I tend to prefer DX'ing rather than local work, so looking for low angle radiation.

After going thru specs and reviews for a few months, the Butternut HF9V comes out top of my list, but almost has too much on it - I don't get a lot of spare time so tend to concentrate on 1 or 2 bands at any one time, so whole HF converage is not one of my priorities.

And before you ask, yes I'm going to eventually get a tower (in 3 or 4 years time) but this is something to see me through until then.

Grateful for your thoughts.

73 - Darrell G0HVQ

[NI0C]

If you are interested in working only one band at a time, you might consider the Force 12 Sigma 40XK vertical dipole.  No radials are needed, and you can set it up for any of the bands from 40 thru 10 meters.  It works best when ground-mounted with the lower "T-bar" about 4 feet above ground, which gives an overall height of about 20 feet.  It's very strong, might need a single guy rope at the center to stabilize it in high winds.  I'll put mine back up in the Spring to QSY to higher bands when I have to take up my radials.

Cheers & 73,
Chuck  NI0C

[K3GM]

At $548 dollars(US), or $150 dollars more than the HF9V, you could get the SteppIR SmallIR Vertical.  You'd get perfect tuning and continuous tuning from 20 thru 6 meters. You wouldn't have to worry about traps, coils or bandwidth.  The Butternut is a good antenna, but at its price point, there are other alternatives you should examine.  Another method which would work very well is a ground mounted auto tuner with a vertical radiator; a wire or other conductor.  Again, perfect match with no worry of bandwidth limitations.

[VE3IOS]

Butternut makes a very good antenna.
Jeff

[KA0GKT]

I concur on the Butternut...if it was not for the truly immense shipping costs to the UK, I might suggest a HyTower (18-HT) :-D

Have you considered building your own antenna?  Verticals really aren't a big deal design-wise.  Both the RSGB and ARRL have good antenna books.  I would guess tht the aluminium  tubing and other material would be a lower cost alternative to the manufactured antenna.

Good luck.

73 DE KAØGKT/7

--Steve

[AC0DV]

As you can read in my "review" of the Hy-Gain HyTower "JR" or Junior manual... a few threads up in this (TowerTalk) forum... I myself am considering the HyTower Junior.

Too bad it is fairly new... no REAL reviews are available for the antenna itself. Just what I wrote about the manual... which isn't much... but better than what I had yesterday.

It has NO coils and has "stubs" for the 10/15/20 meter bands. I've read the "regular" HyTower will work on 12 nicely and 17 should be okay... although you may need a tuner for 17M.

I think it could be a fine contender. (I personally think the design seems to be a lot better than a 25' bottom or middle loaded vertical.)

I like the design because it appears so much "less" or "cleaner" than other designs. I.e., no coils.. the only "weird" thing about it is the "cage" of wires used for the 80/75M band. (Although I like idea of the "cage" better than any other kind of loading... bottom.. middle.. top...)

I am thinking of getting one and mounting it up a bit... perhaps 25 feet to the base... with tuned radials. This will get it up above buildings and the hills I have on 2 sides of my house.

(Although ground mounting it's 39' height will get most of it up above these things... I think it might be better to get the 10/15/20 "stubs" up higher... but since nobody has any experience with this antenna yet... I might be one of the first to try it that way.)

Of course... as I said before... nobody has reviewed it.. and elevated mounting is NOT something they say anything about in the manual...

Given your situation... I'd consider it. I like the height. (39') And if it truly works even "almost" as good as the regular HyTower... it will be a slam-dunk "winner".

The ONLY thing I don't "like" about it is the fact that it uses the wire assemblies. Nowhere in the manual does it say what gauge the wires are... hopefully at least 12#. 10# would be even BETTER. But I fear they might be 14# or 18#. Of course... they could probably be easily changed to larger wires if/when needed. This type of maintenance would probably be easier than replacing burned out coils and such... just go buy some wire at a local hardware store and fix it up.

Anyway... that's my 0.02 cents.

(Of course I have an ulterior motive... if I can get others to try it out and review it... I'll have more incentive to get one.)

BTW: These are $350.00 and are UPS shippable. (The main portions of the radiator appear to be about 6.5' in length... with a 2" diameter.)

There might be others with "negative" views of this antenna.. but most I've read are mainly of the "nobody has reviewed this antenna and I don't trust something new... especially from MFJ" variety. (Although "officially" Hy-Gain is NOT MFJ.)

This design appears.. or I should say "feels" much better than the weird MFJ-1796/MFJ-1798 (?) antennas... which are no-ground/weird counterpoise types of beasties. (And personally I have no experience with "GAPS" but I like this design better than them also.)

Besides. It LOOKS neat.

--Keith - AC0DV