| WB0EYA |
Rating:      |
2005-10-25 | |
| Good Old Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've had this antenna since 1987, when I lived in California, so it has survived salt air, and hot and cold MO weather. I just purchased a windom, and it seems 40% of the time the butternut has a better signal, 30% the two antenna are very close, and 30% the windom is better. I use a tuner, so I can tune 80 - 6 (yes, this antenna has almost all the add-ons, so it is really a 9v). the antenna my be pitted and oxidized, but it still works VERY VERY well on 40-6. 80 meters it is a bit picky on, and I do not put out a very good signal with it -- but I receive very well with it. I have taken the antenna down about a month ago, and cleaned most of it up. This has helped alot. I still have a few bands that I can not get better swr than 1.6:1, and one band the best I can get is 2:1. But the tuner gets them all to 1:1.
would I buy this antenna again.. YEP. But I'm still looking for a better 80 meter antenna, but don't have the room for a full length horizontal antenna.
I've e-mailed bencher several times for replacement parts and tech support over the last 2 months. They have always responded pretty quickly. They have also shipped the needed parts right away. Not bad that I can get parts for an antenna that I bought almost 20 years ago. |
|
| W3FLH |
Rating:      |
2005-09-29 | |
| Finally OTA |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Finally got the HF6V-X + A17-12 kit back up and it still shines!! OK, maybe the aluminum is a tad tarnished, but not the performance. This antenna is almost 15 yrs. old, and sat, laying down, for the past 8, before I bought a house and reinstalled it at ground level. One email to Bencher (now the parent Co., and replied back by the Pres., no less!), and thirty 16'-6" radials later, I'm tuning the ENTIRE BAND on 20M, all but the top 300khz on 10M, the entire phone portion (plus a little lower) on 40M, the ENTIRE BAND on 30M, and about 60khz on 80M : all with the initial set-up described in the manual!! I haven't gotten a chance to re-adjust it, but I'm sure I will get better performance on 17M, 15M, and 12M, ahich are all tuned just slightly out-of-band at present.
Needless to say, I am very pleased with the antenna, and would recommend it if the application seemed right. Ground mounting this antenna seems to work better than above-ground, and radials are a MUST!!! The more, longer radials you can install, the better. I'm still finding my learning curve with PROPER station installation, but products and support like this make things so much easier...
Tony
W3FLH
73 |
|
| W2BXR |
Rating:      |
2005-05-09 | |
| Good product |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I bought a HF5V, (no 30m at the time) in 1974 and used it till 1984 when my lanscaper broke it off at the base. I placed it next to my home, outside, intending to put it back up but did not till 2004. I bought a new section that mounts in the ground from Butternut and made a new 75 ohm coax cable that connects to the input. I also made a new wire stub for 15m and put 22 new radials of various lengths in the ground. The antenna still working fine after 30 years. What more needs to be said? |
|
| WB4M |
Rating:     |
2005-01-10 | |
| 20 years of service. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought my HF6V in the mid-80's. I had borrowed one from a friend and used it a while and decided to buy one for myself. I have always used mine mounted in the ground, both with and without radials. I put down radials using the large gauge staples. I went outside one day to see the neighbors kids pulling up my radial wires! I also bought the 160-meter coil, and what a rip-off that thing is! You only get 12kc of bandwidth at 2.0 SWR and it was a bear to tune to the frequency I wished to use. One night, my neighbor's dog chewed the 160 meter coil up so badly that I had to trash it (the coil, not the dog!) and I never replaced it.
Although this has been a good antenna over the years, I would not pay $600.00 for a new one and the counterpoise kit. For that kind of money I could find some good used tower sections and put up dipoles, slopers, or load the tower itself and do just as good as the veritcal.
For the past few years my vertical has been placed at the edge of my lot beside a wooded area, mounted on the ground, no radials being used. When I noticed the SWR rising I know its time to go pull the vines off of it, hi hi.. The vines love to wrap around the coils. If you can find a used one in great condition it would be a good addition to your antenna farm. But $600.00 for a new one.... well, it's your money! |
|
| N4KZ |
Rating:      |
2005-01-10 | |
| Excellent antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I had my HF6V up at two different QTHs and had excellent results. I worked a ton of DX with it, including on 80 meters. I had tried for several years to work JA on 80m CW at sunrise running an inverted vee antenna up 60 feet. No luck. But the first morning I was running the Butternut, I logged 6 of those guys!
I believe in radials and a ton of them. At first, I roof-mounted the HF6V and used a few resonant radials. It worked well but I thought it was taking a beating from the wind considering how tall the antenna is. So, I moved it to the ground and began installing 60-foot long radials. At first, I laid down 8 radials. The antenna worked but I didn't like the signal reports. So, the next Saturday I laid down 32 more radials and that made a huge difference. At the next QTH, I laid down 50 radials each 60 feet long. That was a great antenna installation! I used small gauge wire and didn't bury the radials. I used laid them on the ground in the fall of the year and held them in place with large nails shoved into the dirt. The grass grew up over the radials in no time and no one knew they were there. Don't waste your time digging little trenches to bury them.
Running 600 watts from an amp, my signal reports on 20 meters were roughly as good as when I ran 100 watts into a 3 element tribander up 50 feet at my previous QTH. So that gives you some standard of comparison although it's far from scientific.
Later, I installed my tower and beam at the new QTH and then used the vertical on just 80-30 meters but still with outstanding performance.
This is a great low-profile DX antenna. But install it in the clear away from buildings and fences and lay down as many radials as you can.
73, Dave, N4KZ |
|
| K6CU |
Rating:      |
2005-01-10 | |
| It's a "do all" antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I won't bore you with the 326 countries I've worked using the HF6-V, as there are many variables (including the operator) that can make a difference.
I can give you a true comparison however. My original antenna was a full-size 40m "sloper", fed at the base with several radials. A very good performer and, with 1500 watts, I had one of the better Long Path signals to Europe from CA, and won several JA contests.
However, it only worked on 40 meters. So, I bought a new HF6V to "test" against the sloper, which was a proven performer. To my surprise it worked just about as well as the full-size sloper. In fact, the difference was almost impossible to tell, either receiving or transmitting. This is the true measure of effectiveness -- how does it actually work in the real world, compared to an antenna designed for one band.
The real benefit, of course, was that I could now operate on the other bands. I'm no longer QRO, but with just 100w and the HF6-V, I've worked DXCC on 80 through 10 meters. Although not designed for 12m or 17m, with a tuner it works well on those bands too.
With 40+ years as a ham, and after buying & trying almost every type of antenna known to man, I'll give the Butternut HF6-V a pat on the back for having the best all-around system available. It also has withstood the recent storms and high winds with no problem.
Bill, K6CU
|
|
| AE6IP |
Rating:     |
2004-11-14 | |
| Good for a vertical |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've had mine for 18 months now, and use it mainly on 40, 20, and 10. It has a very narrow SWR bandwidth, and can be finicky to tune. On the other hand, I've only got it 5 feet above my single story roof, using the tuned radial kit, and I've had plenty of good signal reports from reasonable distances.
It's a fine compromise antenna, and I find that it was worth the money I spent on it. I'll keep using it as long as I'm in this location, or until it finally fails mechanically.
|
|
| KB0PGO |
Rating:     |
2004-09-11 | |
| Effective Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| It is a great antenna but I have to admit my ground plane is a metal roof over the garage. Because I deliberatly installed a steel roof on the garage for a vertical antenna there was actually a few problems and a learning curve. The basic problem with my setup was I used a tripod on the roof to mount the antenna. The effect was that as I used higher frequencies the antenna was tuning to a lower and lower frequency. I had to learn that with a perfect ground plane any distance from the antenna to that ground plane effectively becomes a length of antenna. After the lesson was learned I have been very pleased with the antenna. There was more countries worked in one week than done in the last 4 years. That may have more to do with using PSK31 rather than SSB than the antenna. I purchased the 6 meter adapter for the antenna and realized it was outragiouly overpriced and poorly built. Ended up building my own 6 meter adapter out of antenna parts and pop rivets - much more solid and works very well. The only other problem that I've found is the connecting cable should be sealed up so that moisture can't get inside - I used silicone RTV to seal it up after replacing it after a failure caused corosion and a high SWR. |
|
| VE7AIJ |
Rating:      |
2004-08-28 | |
| Great HF Vertical |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have owned an HF6V for almost 20 years. I have had it mounted on a mast with the "stub tuned radials", but now it is ground mounted.It works very well on the ground if you use several radials. I have 15 30ft radials during the summer, but in winter I add another 15 for a total of 30.I find it works best on 20, 30 and 40 meters. I have worked a lot of dx on those bands running my Icom 745 or 718 at 100 watts. On 40 I run my SB200 amp when required and work everything I can hear. It is just ok on 15 and 10. I have had to replace the ceramic capacitors due to them failing.Like any vertical, you need a good radial system to get good results. The problem now is that the cost has gone way up since I bought mine. If I was buying a vertical today, I think I would look at the Hustler 4-BTV or 5-BTV as a better value. |
|
| IZ1DXG |
Rating:     |
2004-03-31 | |
| good vertical |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Got this antenna couple of years ago, ground mounted with 45 buried radials of various lenght.Unfortunatly the antenna was mounted on the little back yard garden but i had great result in all band exept 10 M where I use a 5/8 monoband that outperforms the butternut of various S meter unit.
Due to some works on the garden i had to set the antenna down and I borrowed a used R7 Cushcraft but my opinion is that the R7 is not as good as the Butternut.
Then i tryed a vertical made in italy called 7+ from ECO Antenna that is the clone of the R7 but i didn't have much luck on performance except on 20 M band, therefore I set the butternut up again.
This time no radials too much work to do therefore i got a metallic net (wire mesh) to do the job.
SWR is ok on all band ecxept on 15 M a little high.
I used the antenna on 20-40 and 80 M with good results I receive the same signal report i give with my Icom 775 with 100 W , i worked also some africans and american stations on 80 M with 200 W
I will make other test on the antenna and I'll update this,may be I'll try also the 160 M kit.
For now i can say that this antenna is very good but you need space to make it work properly (radials or groun screen)
Little expansive here in italy about $ 650-700
73's |
|