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| Reviews Summary for Butternut HF9V |
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Reviews: 15
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Average rating: 4.5/5
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MSRP: $399.00
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Description: Work 9 popular bands; 80 thru 6 meters with a single, highly efficient vertical radiator only 26 ft. tall!
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More info: http://www.bencher.com
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You can
write your own review of the Butternut HF9V.
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K8ALM
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 26, 2008 05:20
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Very good antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've owned the HF9V for more than a year now. Because of limited space I have it mounted on a fence post with the counterpoise kit. I use it primarily for 80 and 40 meters and I've been able to work the world with this antenna on these bands (including VK land on 40). I've read negative comments about the counterpoise kit but it most definetly works for me. In all my years as a ham I've never been able to work as much 40 meter DX as I am now. I use it as a backup on the higher frequencies. I have a TGM MQ36SR on the roof for 20 meters and higher (also a good compromise performer).
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WB6IYM
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 19, 2008 14:44
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Great antenna, but needs careful tuning
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I owned an HF6V for about 20 years, then I decided it was time for retirement--the antenna that is. After looking around and remembering how much DX I have worked with the HF6V, I opted to go for the HF9V.
My ground system with the previous antenna was quite marginal (a 10' X 10' mesh of 14 ga wire in a 1'X1' pattern). This time I significantly upgraded. I formed a ground plate out of a 14" X 18" copper plate and installed 14 25-ft long radial of #10ga insulated stranded wire.
The antenna plays well, except one should really do some research before installing. There are some peculiarities with the antenna. I found out that you need to really tweak the 12-meter coil to where the SWR is optimum (less than 1.5:1) or 10 meters will resonate very high in the band. Mine resonated at 29.2 Mhz when I first installed the antenna and would not get any closer to 28.0 no matter how much I adjusted the top tubing section (like it says in the book). After I tweaked the 12 meter coil in line, 10 behaved as advertised.
Also, the 15 and 6 meter stubs need to be shortened beyond what is dictated in the manual. The six meter being the worst. The antenna tunes at 48 Mhz with the dimensions from Butternut. You need to shorten them by about 6 inches to get it in line with the band, but to do that, you need to make an extra long lower insulator as the tubing clamp they give you will not accomodate going up to the next section of tubing (smaller diameter).
Bottom line: Buying and installing this antenna offered two improvements for me: 1) a perfect excuse to by an MFJ-259B - been wanting one for a long time; and 2) the chance to install a greatly improved ground system.
The antenna does perform quite well for me. I have noticed much improved signals for all bands. If you are interested in purchasing one of these, I would recommend that you read the tech articles on the Butternut website and buy and MFJ antenna analyzer. Also, you might want to look at or join the Butternut group on Yahoo - lots of good data there.
73's de Charles, WB6IYM
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W2LJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 31, 2008 13:42
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Works for me!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I live in a very RF polluted environment. A lot of times, S9 background noise on 40 Meters is common most nights; so my G5RV is my primary antenna because of the noise factor.
That being said, anytime I hear some DX that I want to work, the HF9V is my "weapon of choice". I have worked Kwajalein Atoll, Alaska, Ducie Island, Clipperton, Mauritania, Senegal and a host of others from NJ with 5 Watts to the Butternut. (Yeah, I'm a QRPer). The Butternut gets my sginal through when the G5RV just won't cut it.
Also, a word about Butternut's stability. I used to own a GAP antenna that sway like a hula dancer in winter and summer storms. And when it got icey, the GAP would bend to the point where it was scarey. In comparison, after keeping an eye on the Butternut during both winter and summer storms, I don't even give it a second thought!
If you're like me; and you have limited real estate, but you still want a good DX antenna - then consider a Butternut vertical.
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G7TPL
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 12, 2008 06:29
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works well.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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got mine 2nd hand off a local ham,pre built.
ground level with 8 17m 1/4 radials and 4 20m 1/4 radials,performed well,good VSWR on MOST bands(17 was a little high at 2.5-1).
then came the wind.
bottom section bent slightly,giving the antenna a "drunk" look,but still performed.
the only maintainance I have had to do is clean off the corrosion around the stainless hardware(stainless and aluminium?? not a good idea),and the capacitor hardware(same issue).
used for 2 years now,with no other issues.
worked the world on 100 watts.
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N8JFX
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 5, 2007 02:22
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Great Preformance
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Had mine for over 3 years and still works flawless. Great reports and can take the brutal "8" Lander weather.Don't even consider any other Vertical...This one works and take 70+mph winds.Great support from Butternut also.
Good planing and patience will pay off with this gem.
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K6YUM
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 3, 2006 09:26
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HF9V - GREAT ANTENNA
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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GREAT ANTENNA. I acquired a used Butternut HF9V off of EBay about a year ago. Assembly was a bit of a chore in that nothing was marked and the instructions were incomplete. Some help from Butternut cleared this problem up. The antenna is immediately next to our garage (1 foot from the roof overhang). It is ground mounted using the small steel pipe that came with it connected by two U-bolts through a treated 2X4 about 2 feet into the ground with 1 ½ feet above ground. I have one 4 foot ground rod at the base of the antenna and 4 ground radials that are 16 feet long buried in the earth that run in a misshaped formation away from the garage with some very abrupt turns. There are also several near by trees much taller than the antenna. I have been able to tune the antenna to where it is very close to a 1:1 SWR on my favourite areas of the bands from 80 through 10 meters. I used an MFJ 962C antenna tuner and my Heathkit SB-200s SWR meter to check the SWR. The antenna radiates a great signal on all the bands noted though it would probably do much better with some real ground radials under it and a position away from the garage. However, our back yard is a rather small and oddly shaped. Also, we have limiting CCRs to contend with. The present position does conceal the antenna. I am very pleased with the results of the antenna under rather harsh conditions. Butternut did a great job with this antenna. (I also have up a K4POZ screwdriver antenna, with an Icom 706 QRP rig connected, which is about 20 feet away.)
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WA8ZWH
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 3, 2006 06:18
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Great product and product support
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've had my HF9V up for about two months now and I am very satisfied. I have limited space for a radial system so I use the CPK with the antenna mounted up about 8 feet. The results are incredibly good. I get excellent signal reports from almost everyone. We just went through a bit of a windstorm here in northeast Ohio with winds gusting to 50 MPH+ and my HF9V held up beautifully. At one point in my testing and installation I did have to contact Butternut technical support Bob Locher, W9KNI. He was very helpful and stayed with me until my issue was resolved. Good product and engineering.
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AA3EJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 24, 2006 20:54
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Great performance & value...
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This antenna (HF9v) is great and works as advertised, however to obtain maximum efficiency, you MUST! use a radial ground screen - the larger the better... I have found..
1.I installed a 32 radial ground screen made out of #17 gage electric fence wire, attached to a DX Engineering radial plate, every other radial hole connected (to fit my side yard), terminated in 10-12 nails to hold it down..and added two additional radials 55ft long wrapped around front and rear of house (QTH is in side of a hill)..I connected a small 1 ft long piece of coax braid filled with solder as the ground strap from the matching coil to a U bolt on the radial plate, U bolt attached to 2ft galvanized pipe in the ground.
2.Assembled the HF9v and set the dimensions as recommended in the instruction manual. The clamps could be shaped better or slightly increased in dimension length for ease of assembly, ..but were OK..Vertical sits about 1 ft above ground level..
3.After assembly and installation on the pipe, I attached the RG8 (50ft) to basement shack and turned on the K2/100..WOW!, ..40M almost blew me away!...
4.I swept the frequency range of each coll, with a Palstar analyzer from the shack, made minor adjustments to the 80m through 20m coils to bring the minimum SWR down to the lower edge of each band (my operation is CW only!)..and tightened the thumb nuts..The initial mfg settings favored the phone segments of the bands..
5.I then proceeded to test each band, and compare results with my 160m doublet-open wire feeder antenna..with results that exceeded my expectation, yielding same or better results with my full size top band doublet up 30ft...the vertical really hears and you can work all you hear..HB9 from Zurich gave me 599 on 40m, and a 8P9 was acknowledged with first attempt with 50w..The 40m band being the best band (more efficient),30M another solid DX QRP band.. and the antenna is a pleasure to use - will definately be my "main" antenna for general QSO work as well as for low angle DX skip..the best enjoyment is comparing each antenna during an actual QSO and selecting the best one to suit the band conditions for that particular QSO. I rate this HF9v a solid "5" for performance and ease of operation and assembly..You may email me for further information, my bio and email address is on QRZ.com..73' Dave, AA3EJ
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K1DX
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 21, 2006 17:05
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Excellent, incl. TBR-160 coil.
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I bought this HF-6V (previous owner upgraded it to the HF-9V0 and 160m option at a flea for $20! I've owned many verticals including the Gap Chal., Hustler 6BTV, R-7, and others.
This antenna has been up for 5+ months and has produced 50+ new countries on 80/75m and 35 on 160m without any major effort. It works well on 40 and 30m, also. I've used it a bit on 20m for contests, but I almost always use a beam on 20-10m.
I have about 40 radials of varying length (most about 60').
Tuning is a small pain using an MFJ analyzer. It would be a major royal pain without the analyzer. But once set (marking settings for 80 and 75m), it is reliable and doesn't move with changes in wetness as the other verticals did.
I get 25kHz coverage on 80m and 8 kHz on 160m w/o using a tuner. With a tuner, I can operate from 1815-1840 with ease running 1kw. Unfortunately, to go from 80 to 75m, I have to re-adjust the 80m coil to positions I marked on the mast.
It's a good antenna, and in my case, it was a super bargan. It's a keeper! I don't have room for a bigger antenna, so I'll stick with this and my TA-53M on a roof mast.
If you are considering the HF-9V, I strongly recommend plenty of radials and an antenna analyzer for tuneup. It's a great small DX antenna, and for me, it is the best DX pileup breaker I've used on 30/40/80/160m.
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KD4AC
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Rating: 1/5
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Jan 29, 2006 05:59
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Flimsy
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I've had my Butternut HF9V up for four months. Initially, I only had 40 radials and two ground rods at the base of the antenna. SWR and bandwidths, using an MFJ antenna analyzer, were pretty much as advertised for 75, 40, 30, 15 and 6 meters. I guess I could say the same for 20 meters where the SWR was 1.9 to 2.0 across the entire band. However, I could not find a resonant point anywhere for 17, 12 or 10 meters. After adjusting the antenna pretty much all day in the Florida heat and humidity, trying to get it to work on the other bands, I gave up. I decided to wait for cooler weather when I would also add more radials. During that time I worked VK on 40M SSB, in addition to Belgium and Greece on 30M RTTY. Now that it's cooler, I finally got outside and put down more radials for a total of about 100 (I need to count them). Then I decided to try adjusting the antenna again. To my dismay, most of the stainless steel hardware that came with the antenna had rusted. I expected the aluminum sections of the antenna to be oxidized but I wasn't expecting rusted hardware. And in the process of raising and lowering the antenna so many times trying to get the upper bands tuned, the lugs broke off the coil that installs across the feedpoint of the antenna which is necessary for 75/40M operation. I scraped some of the enamel off and installed new lugs but the antenna is pretty much useless... 75M bandwidth is now only 10 KHz, 40M is less than 100 KHz, 30M doesn't work at all and neither do a lot of the upper bands. So, for now, it's nothing more than a receive antenna until I get my SteppIR vertical installed.
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