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Reviews For: Butternut HF6V

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Butternut HF6V
Reviews: 90MSRP: 522.95 USD
Description:
10,15,20,30,40,80,Vert.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.dxengineering.com/parts/but-hf6v
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00904.5
VE4GWN Rating: 2002-07-27
WOW! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I picked up this antenna used, and The only reason I tryed this was the price. The insolaters for the 15m wire were broken, but the handle of a toothbrush fixed this up. I have it ground mounted, and only put 100w into it, but get great reports. Durring the winter I did get better reports on 80m, but now that it is warmer I'm not doing as well on 80m, I think that a better ground would improve this.
73 Glen
VE4GWN
N9ETY Rating: 2002-03-11
Bends, but does not break. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'd just like to share with everyone that my recently purchased HF6V handily withstood the 60+ wind gusts that came through the Chicago area this last weekend. The HF6V is ground mounted and has no guy wires. At times it seemed to bend at least 50 degrees during the gusts but always sprang back to its original position. Just like the flag over Ft. McHenry, it was still standing when the sun came up the next day.

73

Bruce

N9ETY



NU7R Rating: 2001-09-26
Does the job Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I live on a narrow lot with no space for a tower and no trees for wire antenna support. There are only saguaro cacti. I have previously had a HF6V so I put up another one. Yes it is much more expensive than the old one, but what isn't more expensive.
The antenna is mounted on a galvanised roof since the house located from an old copper smelter. I don't have any radials an none seems to benecessary.
The antenna works great on all six bands. I have worked many countries, 40 or 50, on all bands with 100 watts. Last week I added a 1KW linear to the shack. Now I can break any pileup. I worked 40 Scandanavians in their contest last weekend. The antenna takes power well. I monitor the reflected power at all times running 1KW and there is no sign of breakdown or heating problems. This is with 100+ degree temperatures here in Arizona.
I have noted some mention of problems with tuning on 15 meters. I had to shorten the 15 meter wire 6-7 inches shorter that the directions suggest. This may be due to the highly conductive ground. Now it is flat through the whole voice band.
I am very happy the Butternut. I worked over 260 countries with my old HF6V and I am well on the way with my new one.
KA0VSL Rating: 2001-08-13
Great Vertical Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought a used Butternut HF6V a couple of years ago. I put it up in the back yard on top of a 10 foot TV mast. I made 4 multiband radials out of 450 ohm ladder line to the dimensions that are show in the Butternut instruction sheet. I weaved a nylon messanger line through each of the four radials and pulled each radial to a corner of the back yard. Works great. The elavated radials have about 7 - 10 feet of clearance which gives me plenty of room to mow. They also really help to reduce the ground looses. The antenna is guyed just about the 30 meter coil. Overall a very nice antenna. I adjusted everything to the instructions and SWR came in just like the manual said it would. Band widths listed in instruction sheet are pretty close to. I tuned the 80 meter section for 3885 and use a tuner to cover the lower end of the band. The antenna SWR is less than 2:1 across 40 meter phone and 3.5:1 to end of CW Band. 20 meter phone band SWR is pretty flat from 14.150 to 14.350. Raises to 2.5:1 at low end of CW bands. 30 and 15 meters are flat too. This is a great antenna, Light years ahead of some of the Cushcraft stuff my friends have bought and discarded. Highly Recommened.

73,

Jim Zellmer, KA0VSL
KC4IWO Rating: 2001-06-20
tunning advice Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Here are some tricks I have used to tune my HF6V.
A noise bridge or ant. analyzer is a big help. Also a field strength meter is a big help. I am using a 1:1 balun transformer at the feed point inbetween the 75ohm coax and the ant. I have found it helps when you lack the proper radial system. Use the field strength meter to see what radials you do have are working on what bands. I have noticed that by grounding the ant. to a gutter pipe about 20ft. away it changed the swr on some bands. So watch the enviroment because it will have an effect on the ant. The field strength meter will help you find offending objects. I have also noticed that you can do fine tune adjustments by opening or squeezing the coils closer or further apart without moving the slider adjustments. This work well on the 40 meter coil.
AA4A Rating: 2001-06-20
Rugged Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had an HF6V up here on the coast of Massachusetts for over 10 years, and it has weathered everything, including The Perfect Storm. I lost 3 Gap verticals in 3 years prior to that, though I admit I can't guy any of these antennas. It does have a permanent 15 degree lean, but it works well and and has had VERY little attention and no replacemant parts. I am an engineer and no believer in antenna hocus-pocus, and this antenna, with 16 radials, will hang in there with any other 30 foot-ish vertical and provide plenty of DX. I use it to protect my Honor Roll spot (but wouldn't want to trust it to get me there in the first place!).
DL7IO Rating: 2001-06-20
12/17m Time Owned: N.A.
Hello,
I know the tuning on 12/17m is not easy and takes time for the first time. So move the whole coils but very carefully. The positioning is very critical. If you can see a dip, even with a bad swr try to move the coils also on the usually fixed side. But again carefully (!!!) only a few millimeter at once. At my QTH the positions varies from the describtion but finally I could tune it to better than 1:1,2 like all other bands.
For 10 m the full length is working. So you have to change the length of the top element. If 15 m is working all elements till the wire have good contact. So check the contact of the last element. Measure again the whole length and compare with the describtion. We once had the same problem and found that the first element after connecting the coax was to small. This one is (like the top element) not fixed in the position by screws. So you are able to tune most of the other bands with the coils but you will not get a result on 10. Even your 12/17m problems may be a result of this because of the difficult tuning.

I'm using HF9V's fixed at home (mounted on the roof of an 11 floor building, 32 m high and working fine there since 1993) and for DXpeditions.
regards Holger
KF9VH Rating: 2001-06-19
Problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had one for years and never did get it to tune on 10,12 or 17 meters with out a tuner. If space is not a factor put up a G5RV for less than $60 and save the money.
KA4RQB Rating: 2001-06-19
What happened to value? Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I don't see what all the hype over the HF6V's quality is about. I purchased one in 1985 (its design hasn't changed since then) and I was surprised at how thin the aluminum tubing was compared to my Hustler 6BTV, and also how poorly the holes were drilled. Nothing fit together perfectly. On top of that, once I could get the wire that runs down the side of the mast tight enough to be straight, I then had to deal with a bowed antenna! The open coils quickly became home to spiders and other insects who built webs inside them and the capacitors. I ended up having to guy the antenna with non-conductive rope, even though Butternut said it probably didn't need guying. When I tried to take it down for Field Day five years later, I found that several bolts had rusted. As an antenna, it did perform OK, but it was hard to get tuned well -- once you'd adjust the coil for one band, another few bands would be messed up.

Bottom line? It was OK for a $129 antenna. I was shocked to see they now want $350 for this thing when I can buy a 6BTV for a little more than half that price! Heck, it's approaching the price of an R8! What are they thinking?
WF5I Rating: 2001-06-15
Great Vertical Time Owned: more than 12 months.
At the end of April of this year, I installed an old HF6V acquired several years ago. I rebuilt the antenna with parts I ordered from Bencher. I read all the tech notes offered and decided to put in a rather extensive radial system. Due to space, each of the radials were cut at 32 feet (Radials cut to frequency are not required at ground level due to being detuned by the earth). A total of 100 radials were ran from the base of the vertical where I used 4/0 wire in a 15 inch diameter circle to connect to. This was tied back to the ground side of the antenna.

Since the first of May until this past weekend (June 9 - 10th) I have successfully logged 112 different countries and over 210 total DX contacts. Being on a limited budget I am running a Yeasu FT840 at 100 watts and NO amplifier. Needless to say I am very satisfied with the performance of the antenna and it certainly outperformes my half square antenna on 20 meters by 2 "S" units.