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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
W8HSJ Rating: 2003-01-05
Had mine for 20 years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This has been a wonderful antenna over the years. I rebuilt it about 4 years ago, some of the tubeing had become stressed over the years. One thing that I did chage was the way the coax attached to the antenna. I built a stress relief mount for the coax. The way it suggests to attach the coax is functional, but over the years, the coax center conductor would break at the connection point. Of course this only happens when there 2 - 3 feet of snow on the ground and around 0 degrees. Almost impossibe to do any soldering. (my coax was buried) Anyway, just a thought.

As a final thought, very well made. I expect it to last another 20 years.
WB7QXU Rating: 2002-11-30
best vert overall Time Owned: more than 12 months.
i actually have a a HF10v with the 160m coil which works, the antena is ground mounted in my backyard next to a wooden fence. I have many radials in all directions going as far as they can about 1000ft total in wire. This is the best over all vert for all bands. My HF2v will beat it on 80 and 40 by a short amount. but not much, not too noticable. but the bandwitdth is better with the cap hat. only on 10m is this ant lacking. i don't care for 6m it will get you on the band, comparing with a quad I have up there is a 2s-unit difference but that is expected, but This antenna is HOT, AT TIMES A FLAME THROWER. I AM CONSTANTLY SURPRISE IN HOW WELL IT WORKS, I AM SO GLAD I GOT IT OVER THE OTHER MAKES, i have had several of cushcraft, hustlers, THIS ANT IS A PROVEN PREFORMER, I WOULD NOT USE ANY OTHER. MULTIBAND VERT, IT REALLY WORKS AND EZZY TO PUT UP. AND BENCHER WILL GLADY GIVE ADVICE. great bunch to work with. the ant is very well made, stood up to ore coastal winds with ease. I can't tell you how much $$ I wasted with the other guys.
THIS ANT WORKS GREAT DX ie YI, YA, the rare stuff
GET ONE you won't be sorry
G3MXJ Rating: 2002-10-31
Three years experience with the Butternut Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I actually have the Butternut HF10V - i.e with the 160m additional coil. It is used as an additional contest antenna, and also for general use - it's really useful to have a multiband antenna for band checking without having to switch antennas.

First off, it has to be said that the Butternut is somewhat more complex than some other verticals on the market. It needs tuning and it needs radials. But there are good reasons for this. Other verticals just put in lossy traps to make the thing work on multiple bands. The Butternut uses the full height of the antenna on all bands. Other verticals use various 'frigs' to get away from using radials. In practice, this means that the efficiency is compromised and a lot of power is disappearing in heating up the various coils. As with all antennas, the more effort that is required to install it, the better will be the results.

As mentioned, you do need to tune it. I used a MFJ-259 and had no problem obtaining a good match on all of the bands. The bandwidth is pretty sharp on 160 and 80m but this is to be expected with an electrically short antenna. Also, with the very low impedance at the bottom, you need to make sure that all of the clamps and connectors are tight and making good electical contact. An odd ohm or two around the feedpoint can well dissipate a good proportion of your output power.

My home QTH does not have room for a full set of radials. But with just what can be fitted into a small space, the antenna sounds 'active' on all the bands as soon as you listen. Other verticals that I have used, by comparison, sound dead.

Three years of usage have shown it to be a most useful antenna. I have used it in SO2R contesting where it is on the multiplier spotting rig running 100W barefoot. There is usually little problem working anything I call.

But the example that provoked me into writing this review happened last week. My normal 80m antenna is down at present but the Butternut cut through a big EU pileup to work ZL7C on the second call!

This is a vertical antenna that really works and apart from those that need an additional antenna for general use, it should be the first choice for anyone with restricted real estate.
KB0VVK Rating: 2002-08-30
Happy Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Took a little wile to put together
But I am very happy with it .
cant get 10 or 160 meters but thats my fault dint try that hard to get them.
Had a friend from our ham club help me tune it and all the other bands work just fine can talk
to both the east and west coast very easy.
put together in living room in three sectins then put alltogether in the garage.
VA6MJT Rating: 2002-05-14
Great Antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am new to amateur radio as of late April this year. Due to limited space I was told the HF9V was a decent investment. I also bought the radial kit and the 160m kit. Putting it together was not all that difficult as I took my time, went over the manual a couple of times. About 4 - 6 hours I had it all together in my living room.
I have placed it on a pole 3 feet off of the ground, buried the radials and have a good 10 foot ground drove in 9in. away from antenna. I had to do very little tuning. I have an Antenna Analyzer which made the job a lot easier for fine tuning. I can work every band except all of 80m and 160 without a tuner.
I have made contacts to 16 countries since April 25th and I have been able to get in the pileups timing it just right and making the contacts. I have been getting excellent signal reports. Of course it will not compare to a beam, however, I am very impressed thus far. Everything I have heard I have been able to get back to. I did find it to be expensive but with a limited space left me with only a few options to become an operator.
I run only 100 watts and do not expect to go much beyond that any time soon and I am pleased with the performance of this antenna.
Don't be surprised by watching it snap around in the wind because it does whip back and forth a great deal and it is very windy in my area. Now that I have it all setup I have also tied it to stop some of the whipping on the lower half of the antenna. Remember to use something that will not wear through the metal over time. Tie to a bolt if possible.
Overall performance I great. I am totally pleased and the footprint is very small. If you have limited space I feel this is the right verticle.
If you follow the directions and measurements there is very little tuning needed. I have marked exactly which piece is which for tuning and identification and would be happy to share any information I can. I use this antenna every day and make regular contacts all over the bands.
N0WAE Rating: 2002-05-08
Great Antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading the tech articles about this antenna
I was convinced and bought one along with the
STR-II radial kit. I mounted the antenna at roof
top level on a grounded mast attached to the back
of my house. I attached 10 foot non-conductive
electric conduit pipes vertically to my chain link
fence to tie off antenna rope attached to the
radials in my yard. It's important to follow the
directions about grounding a metal mast and avoiding other metal objects that can de-tune the antenna. Another potential problem is the measurements that Butternut gives you might not work for your installation. There is just too many
variables that can change the point of resonance. I was real glad to have a MFJ-269 when I tuned my
antenna. I found that I had to radically depart from the Butternut measurements to properly tune in some bands.

Some people have reported that they had trouble with identifying the pieces...I agree Butternut could have done a better job. I solved the problem
by measuring the length of all the tubes. (The
manual does give you that info) Another reported
problem was that the holes in the tubes were
misaligned so the screw wouldn't fit through...
Simply rotate one of the tubes 180 deg. and the
screw will fit through.

OK, enough on the install and tips. How well does
this antenna work for me?... *Real Well*!!! In just 3 months I have logged 80 countries and busted several pileups including K1B! I was able
to get a SWR of 1.5 for the entire 15,17 and 20m
bands. There are portions of the other bands where
I do use an antenna tuner so that I can use the entire band. Antenna efficiency specs are more important to me than a flat SWR anyhow.
W6IZK Rating: 2002-03-13
Pricey but it works Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Was impressed with the technical articles about the antenna's design. Somewhat on the expensive side and it would have been a lot easier to assemble if they had labled the coils or the little boxes they come packed in. It took a lot longer to assemble than I expected but then again, there are a lot of parts involved and some careful measurements that need to be made. I mounted mine on the ground with their radial kit which is also a little expensive for what you get (12 insulated wires with a lug on one end). The antenna seems to perform well. I did not spend a great deal of time tweaking it for each band but VSWR appears within the range of my Alinco EDX-1 tuner on all bands. When the weather warms up a bit more, I'll take more time to tweak the tuning.
AD6WL Rating: 2002-03-04
Works Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This antenna talks. It works well on the 20-10, 40m/80m is very marginal. The WARC bands won't tune properly. I couldn't get all the bands to tune at the center freq I wanted. Example 20m resonates above 14.350. However, 15, 10 meters tunes perfectly. 80m/40m/30m/17m/12m forget it, get out the tuner. Now the antenna does talk well. I have workded DXCC, WAS with it. You will need to work on the radials to get it to work. The counterpoise is useless. Overall, I stil like the antenna.
WB8NUT Rating: 2001-12-05
Great Antenna, price too high Time Owned: more than 12 months.
O.K., I give it a 4 and not a 5 because it is a vertical. But as verticals go, it has worked very well for me. The price on this antenna keeps going up and it seems like they are pricing themselves out of the market. I am on my second one because the first went down in a winter storm four years ago. Overall, I have owned one for 11 years. If it did not perform, I would not have bought the same antenna as a replacement. I should also not that I am using it ground mounted with no radials. 80/75 is marginal (great on digital modes) and all other bands including WARC have good performance. What else can I say except I am 9 QSL cards short of DXCC with this antennna alone.
W2SUQ Rating: 2001-12-01
Good but not Great! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have to say this antenna is pretty darn good. I've given it a four when comparing it to other veritcal antennas, but if comparing to a beam; I would rate it a 3.

I purchased the CPK and RMK-II kit with this from Butternut. Butternut clearly advertises this antenna can be roof mounted but my experience demonstrates otherwise.

Unless you have a really large roof, it simply isn't going to work. No one has room on the roof for that many radials. I purchased the CPK to complete the other half of the half wave and put it up on the roof. SWR was out of sight and the only band that really worked at all was 20m. I removed the CPK and added some radials and then could get on 10-15m. After weeks of messing around, I decided to take it down and ground mount it.

I put it right behind the house, and attached it to a 5ft TV antenna pole cemented in the ground. I also reinstalled the CPK and removed the radials.

The antenna works pretty good now. Bandwidth on 40-80m is really limited, but that was to be expected. I've still got some tuning to do, but so far I'm pretty happy. I used it during ARRL SS SW and CQWW CW and worked a number of countries. Having it behind the house, gives it a clear shot to the west so Europe is a bit shadowed.

I'm pretty happy, but at some point I'm going to put a beam to I can really work those faint and distant DX stations.