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Reviews For: Butternut HF9V

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Butternut HF9V
Reviews: 72MSRP: 604.95 USD
Description:
Work 9 popular bands; 80 thru 6 meters with a single, highly efficient vertical radiator only 26 ft. tall!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.dxengineering.com/parts/but-hf9v
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00724.6
VE6TL Rating: 2005-02-24
Great Antenna, but a bit tricky. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought my HF9V new and assembled it in about 4 hours, paying very careful attention to the instructions. All the parts were there (including a few extra nuts and bolts) and it went together without too much trouble. The hard part was tuning the various bands. I gave up on 10m (SWR worse than 5:1), but everything else seemed to tune up ok - except for 20m (most CW bands were less than 2:1). I checked the manual and it said this was quite common and due to the lack of radials with proper length. As my HF9V is at the back of my yard, I could only install radials in a 180 degree pattern. So far, I only have about 9 radials in the ground, but have had pretty good results. Thanks goodness for my Kenwood AT-230 antenna tuner!

The antenna has been up for the better part of the western Canadian winter and haven't had to touch it. I did put a couple of guys on it as suggested. Since getting back on the air after being away from ham radio for over 20 years, this antenna has allowed me to work 46 countries and 47 states so far - using 100W from my old Kenwood TS-530S. I can pretty much work what I hear, even though there is a fair bit of noise (a problem with all verticals). The next step is to put up some kind of wire or yagi and compare results. But for those people who have limited space or neighborhood restrictions, I would highly recommend this antenna.
KM6CZ Rating: 2004-11-28
Ok for those who like to tinker Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've owned the Butternut HF9V for about six months now and the best thing I can say is that the arrangement works as advertised. For those not really familiar with this product; please note that this antenna requires alot of adjusting and tinkering to get all the bands to work properly. Adjustment on one band will affect results on other bands making tuning repetitive. I also found it necessary to upgrade the hardware somewhat as the mechanical design is less than ideal. (I added at least one stainless steel screw into each overlapping section of the antenna to improve mechanical stability and electrical connectivity. I also cut a couple of slots into the lower tubing sections in which the fiberglass insolators attach to allow placement stainless steel hose clamps. The last upgrade I made was to add hose clamps above the 15m insulated adjustment point to prevent slackening of the wire assembly.)This antenna does work ok, but I have to agree with the other commentors that price isn't worth the cost when compared to the trap verticals of Hygain and Hustler.
MW0EDX Rating: 2004-05-15
Excellent ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Great overall antenna with flat low SWR on the band 40 an up.

80 & 160 m - OUTPERFORMS my 40 m long wire...

Good and very robust, easy to tune.

Would not de-tune under our LONG UK rains...

73 !
KB2QQM Rating: 2004-05-02
STILL GOING STRONG Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I just wanted to say...after many reviews of this antenna. I have owned this antenna for over 2 years in the punishing wind blown, snow driven winters of the Midwest (Wisconsin-on the Lake Michigan Shore)and with all the punishment that it has taken...the constant bending and flexing in the wind..it has and continues to perform flawlessly. The distribution/manufacturing company is about 50 miles South of me and dealing with them has been great-Reason...purchased radials from them as well as a spare 75 Ohm feed stub. I highly recommend it....You might be scared by the price these days, but by now you should already now that "you get what you pay for" and for what I paid for it....it is a bargain. Purchase it...you wont be sorry.
KB2QQM.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KB2QQM on 2002-08-21

I just got the vertical up and running. It is ground mounted. I also chose the Ground radial kit, as just a ground rod, was not doing the trick. All the pieces were included in the box, but do yourself a favor and lay the pieces out on the ground and mark them with a permanent marker before you begin assembling. During assembly some of the holes did not line up correctly so a little clearance drilling worked fine. I set the base in quick concrete and have not had a problem. The vertical does not need guying, although the top whips around a little. Tuning the antenna is a pain in the A##.
I was using the Autek antenna tuner, but a friend lent me his MFJ unit, and I was able to tune the antenna alot faster. The 9 band covers
80/40/30/20/17/15/12/10/6 and somehow I have very low swr on 2M. 80M is very narrow at about 20 khz at most. The antenna comes with a 75 ohm coax matching section, and then you are supposed to connect to 50 ohm coax to your rig. I mounted an SGC 237 tuner between the 75 ohm and 50 ohm coax, and the antenna now works....all the bands with very low swr in about 2 seconds. The sgc tuner is mounted in a waterproof tupperware box, buried underground. Once again...the burying of the radials is a huge pain. I was surprised that the radials were all the same length. I cant believe I paid $85 for the radial kit. You could probably do the same for alot less. Each Radial was around 30 to 40 feet long. I used an electric edger by Black and Decker, to dig down about 2 inches and bury each wire, much to the horror of my wife as a cut 12 2 inch ruts in the yard :-) . It took about 5 hours to bury the radials. If you use a shovel it will take you probably 2 days. Water your lawn the day before, to make it easier. So far the Swr for all the bands with the ground Radial kit, is about 1.3-1.5 for all bands except 17 meters where it is about 2.3:1
I am very happy with the purchase, it is one of the few antennas, that covers all the bands with low swr, has a very small footprint (26 feet tall) It is also easy on the neighbors. It does not require guying, Windrated at 80 mph. Solidly built. I have worked every station I have heard without a problem. I am feeding the antenna with "buryflex" Coax available from www.davisrf.com It is a direct buriable cable that is almost equivalent to LMR 400 except no special connectors are required, just regular PL259's. I am having fun again working DX as up to now for the last 8 years I have used attic dipoles, and magnet wire invisible antennas.
If you do ground mount the antenna keep it away from the building at least 30 feet. So far I have no interference to my house or the neighbor's houses at 100 watts. I am very happy with my purchase and the customer service I have received from Bencher/Butternut. Greg Heath KB2QQM
P.S.- If you need a photo send me an email...
W3KBS Rating: 2004-04-01
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
If I could, I would give the HF-9V a 5+++. It is an excellent antenna with teriffic support. I had spoken to Bob at Bencher both on the phone and by email and always got answers to my questions. Here is my story about the HF-9V. I purchased mine off E/Bay and I am the second owner. The hams I purchased it off of were both hams that lived out on the west coast, a husband and wife team and were extremley nice. I waited a week or so and this wood crate comes in the mail from federal express. The guys in the truck asked me what was in the box and I told them an antenna. When I opened the box inside was indeed the antenna. Coils, poles, wires but all in good shape. I read the instructions several times and began to put the antenns together. I cleaned up each mechanical connection and applied some anti-sieze to each joint. I read all I could about radials, vertical antennas and the need for "RADIALS" which are very important for this antenna to work and work well indeed. Being some what of an industrious type I made a square 5" in diamater out of copper pipe, half inch, where I drilled 22 holes. I placed 5 holes on each square and 2 in both corners of the square. It was a bit of a job but it was worth it. The antenna has 20, 30' radials and also 2, 8 foot ground rods attached which were all soldered together to the square. In the middle of the square was placed the antenna.
Having worked on the antenna for about 3 weeks the job was done and I was ready to give it a try. When I first turned on the set every band was alive including the broadcast band. I wanted to try 30 meters cw so I listened for a bit then called CQ. I was using 5 watts at the time. My very first contact was Italy at 589. I was very impressed to say the least and it only got better. After Italy came Russia and other stations which I have never worked before. This was all done again with just 5 watts.
I would recomend this antenna to anyone. Its a great FLAME THROWER. Also, with all the coils and things attached I think its pretty neat looking. But then I am a mechanical type guy.
SWR was all well within range on my 857. I do use the antenna 6 fm thru 80 meters, WITH NO TUNNER. Only time I have to adjust it is if I want to work cw on 80 I have to stretch the coil a bit then when I want to work phone I have to compress it back. My next step is the 160 meter coil. I have one but the caps are bad. Anybody have any good caps laying around or know where I can get them? If not I'll have to bug Bob at bencher again. I don't think he will mind. :-)
Thanks for reading my review. It been great experience dealing with Bencher and using the antenna I will never be without one.
Bill Bruno
W3KBS
Wayne, Pa.
W3ETC Rating: 2004-01-28
Good working Vertical Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned this antenna for over 2 years now and it has been a lot of fun. It has gotten me on the air where I am sure that in my situation I would have had little luck. It performs well and I have made a lot of contacts. Like all verticals it requires radials to really perfrom and the more the better. Butternut has a great primer as to how many radials and how long but even a few helped it out greatly. There is a lot of parts and the directions can get somewhat confusing but it is worth the effort. The antenna has withstood some strong winds including Hurricane Isabel and come through beautifully. If you are looking for a vertical that works and does it without power robbing traps this should be high on your list to consider.
DK2GZ Rating: 2004-01-05
Best multiband vertical Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use the antenna since several years at different locations.

I put also the 160 kit on.

Worked #1 Honor roll.
WAZ on 80-10
DXCC on all bands, including 160 meter.

Replaced the caps on the 160 meter kit with
a bigger one from Russia!

Antenna is mounted on the balcony for about 4 years now. I use chicken-wire as radials.

Even worked KL7 and KH6 on 80 with this setup.
KI4CYB Rating: 2004-01-05
Awsome! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This antenna is awsome! Spend time and use as many radials on the ground as you can. Also spend time and repeat SWR tunning on all bands. Repating the tunning process eventually gets ALL bands in range.

I burried 500 feet of 14g solid copper in 30 foot lengths the best I could since I could not go 360 degres around antenna. Spend time and adjust all bands, and when done do it again until all is well. I state this because as some here have stated, they ran out of length adjusting the 10M band. I also ran into this, but fine tunning starting from the begining will get ALL bands in tune! I guess all the minor adjustments add up and get the 10M out of "RANGE". As you cycle adjusting all bands, they all land perfectly fine!. From my QTH in Miami,Florida I have worked many countries with no problems. S. Africa, Columbia, Rep Dom, Europe, Netherlands, Germany to name a few...

I will post my SWR radings for refference.

All readings on 100W power using 746Pro SWR meter
Verified Internal Meter with External meter values
and both meters read pprox the same.

6M: 50.000=1.5 52.000=1.3 54.000=1.5
10M: 28.000=1.5 28.900=1.3 29.700=1.6
12M: 24.890=1.1 24.950=1.1 24.990=1.2
15M: 21.000=1.3 21.225=1.2 21.450=1.3
17M: 18.068=1.5 18.128=1.3 18.168=1.4
20M: 14.000=1.3 14.126=1.1 14.350=1.2
30M: 10.100=1.1 10.125=1.1 10.150=1.1
40M: 7.000=1.7 7.146=1.4 7.300=1.8
80M: 3.749=2.0 3.784=1.3 3.834=2.0

80M is approx 100kHz wide (2.0 swr), showing a desent ground radial. With my tuner I can tune ALL band ranges even on 80M.
WB5BYO Rating: 2003-12-16
A true vertical for HF DX Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
In short, this vertical is awesome, electronically it performs better than any other vertical I've had. Now The Vertical is primary for DX and 10-15 Meter operation.

Studied allot of antennas and a lot of vertical antenna theory. Settled in on the HF9V with the 160M kit as it provided all bands operation and the documentation about the vertical was very truthful and accurate.

All Verticals needs a good radial system to get the maximum radiation efficiency. The SWR is not going to be 1:1, so get an antenna tuner if your radio need it... The definition of a good ground radial was up to interpretation, after reading several articles decided on 40 radials. Spent some time to lay in 40 radial 30 feet long (or up to the fence in some areas) and set the antenna base in concrete.

Assembly took me some time as I took my time, measured carefully and insured all electrical connections had the 'butter it's not' compound to protect against corrosion. ( this stuff by the way is excellent ). The antenna went together easily.

Tuning the antenna was done in less that 2 hours. This was for all bands 160 through 6 meters. I must have hit the numbers right, the 12 and 17 meters took the most time and they were very touchy, 1/8th of an inch makes a big difference in resonance. All bands are at resonance. Be aware the SWR at resonance can be as much as 2:1 on the lower frequencies. An MFJ 259 worked terrific here to cut installation time.

Set up a guy wire system using 'spider' wire attached in 4 places to my fence. The spider which is a cloth fishing line that is made of Kevlar and will not stretch. It is also very hard to see. I have to see how it will hold up in the windy Dallas weather, however we have already passed two severe wind days and it is holding strong. Guy wires are still tight and not drooping.

Reports from this antenna are astonishing, In Dallas, my friends in Arkansas can not believe I'm on a vertical. Worked the SS SSB contest and the 10 meter contests often breaking through pile ups with 100 Watts out, including big ones for South Africa and Hawaii. These are especially difficult from Dallas as they are a double hop.

Overall, the antenna puts the maximum amount of radiating antenna in the air on all frequencies. The Radial system is the difference between so-so and truly exceptional performance.

A wire antenna is going to do pretty well in certain applications. It has a significanly higher radiation effeciency and can be tuned to 1:1. Yet for DX, A vertical with it's lower take off angle and vertical polorization is going to do better.

N4ZOU's method of tuning 160M and 80M are the way to go to get full band operation. (See his Articles on eham.net)

My only wish is that Bencher would provide full power kit for N4ZOU's Modification.

Credits to N4ZOU for providing a way to make the antenna usable on all of 160M and 80M bands.

Credits to Bencher support for a prompt reply to emails and phone calls to clarify questions They Gave helpfull comments on radials and tips for tuning. They also confirmed to me that N4ZOU's method of tuning the resononce would work fine.

73's
Richard.

LA1PHA Rating: 2003-08-18
An excellent vertical Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading the review from KD7RGM about 10meter tuning and resonace up on 29.6Mhz I had to put out this review.
I did have same problem( My antenna is groundmounted with radials) and I wondered if 12m tuning could do this.
Resonating frequency was to high there as well.
I tuned 12m right in the band and checked 10m.
Yepp. To low at this moment. I shortened the antenna and 10m was good now.
Retuned all bands one more time and no use for antennatuner anymore. All bands OK.
Finally I checked settings for 80m CW , 80m midband and 80m SSB DX and made markings on antenna for fast settings for contestpourposes.
Only thing I rated 4 is missing markings on parts and fragile feedpoint.
Wouldn't be hard for bencher to the put the coil in a box at the feedpoint and the connection to a UHF connector.
I gonna make a hole in a bucket and tread it over the coil and feedpoint to avoid rain and snow at the base.