Hi again all,

It looks like I'm going to get a Butternut HF9VX vertical to replace my 25
year old Hustler 5BTV. I looked at Gap verticals, but in all the pictures I've
seen, they seem to have some kind of horizontal array at the bottom. I plan on
ground mounting this thing, and I'm afraid someone will trip on the array and
destroy it. My old Hustler had no horizontal elements at ground level, and in
all the pics I've seen of the Butternut verticals, it looks like there is
nothing sticking out at the bottom either. Is there anything at the bottom of
the Butternuts, and what's your experience with them ???


RON KA2IIA
================================================== ======
Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.

Ron,

I have had Butternuts for almost 20 years. My first HF6v cost me about
$150. But times have changed. I really swear by my HF9V. I've earned
both DXCC and WAS on a hundred watts.

You will need to bury some ground radials to get the most out of it. I
have used it with only a pair of 6' ground rods driven into the ground.
But this is certainly a compromise. My current setup has about 8
ground radials of various lengths from about 15 feet to 60 feet,
depending on the rocks in the yard.

The attached link shows the VSWR plot of the antenna across the HF
Spectrum: http://home.comcast.net/~k1rdm/projects.htm . I would
recommend using an antenna analyzer like the MFJ 259 to help tune it.

Good luck, I'm sure you will be happy with it.

73
Rick
K1RDM

Ron in NY wrote:
Hi again all,

It looks like I'm going to get a Butternut HF9VX vertical to replace my 25
year old Hustler 5BTV. I looked at Gap verticals, but in all the pictures I've
seen, they seem to have some kind of horizontal array at the bottom. I plan on
ground mounting this thing, and I'm afraid someone will trip on the array and
destroy it. My old Hustler had no horizontal elements at ground level, and in
all the pics I've seen of the Butternut verticals, it looks like there is
nothing sticking out at the bottom either. Is there anything at the bottom of
the Butternuts, and what's your experience with them ???


RON KA2IIA
================================================== ======
Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.

Hi, as Rick said, the 9 is a GREAT antenna. Also, NO traps to mess with.
Traps can be problems!! Just tune it right and borrow an MFJ antenna
analyzer.
It makes the job so much easier.
Good luck and 73....


Ron in NY wrote:

Hi again all,

It looks like I'm going to get a Butternut HF9VX vertical to replace my 25
year old Hustler 5BTV. I looked at Gap verticals, but in all the pictures I've
seen, they seem to have some kind of horizontal array at the bottom. I plan on
ground mounting this thing, and I'm afraid someone will trip on the array and
destroy it. My old Hustler had no horizontal elements at ground level, and in
all the pics I've seen of the Butternut verticals, it looks like there is
nothing sticking out at the bottom either. Is there anything at the bottom of
the Butternuts, and what's your experience with them ???


RON KA2IIA
================================================= =======
Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.

I agree with spamtank about adding ground radials. My 5BTV has 72 ground
radials and it really does perform well. Pics of the installation here.

1. http://www.ad5th.com/5-BTV.html

Ground return currents are the "other half" of any vertical antenna. Grab
an extra 20db by adding lots of them. Mine total around 1300 ft or wire.

--

Charlie
Deep South 2 Meter SSB Net
www.deepsouthnet.net





"spamtank" wrote in message
...
Ron,

I have had Butternuts for almost 20 years. My first HF6v cost me about
$150. But times have changed. I really swear by my HF9V. I've earned
both DXCC and WAS on a hundred watts.

You will need to bury some ground radials to get the most out of it. I
have used it with only a pair of 6' ground rods driven into the ground.
But this is certainly a compromise. My current setup has about 8 ground
radials of various lengths from about 15 feet to 60 feet, depending on the
rocks in the yard.

The attached link shows the VSWR plot of the antenna across the HF
Spectrum: http://home.comcast.net/~k1rdm/projects.htm . I would recommend
using an antenna analyzer like the MFJ 259 to help tune it.

Good luck, I'm sure you will be happy with it.

73
Rick
K1RDM

Ron in NY wrote:
Hi again all,

It looks like I'm going to get a Butternut HF9VX vertical to replace
my 25
year old Hustler 5BTV. I looked at Gap verticals, but in all the pictures
I've
seen, they seem to have some kind of horizontal array at the bottom. I
plan on
ground mounting this thing, and I'm afraid someone will trip on the array
and
destroy it. My old Hustler had no horizontal elements at ground level,
and in
all the pics I've seen of the Butternut verticals, it looks like there is
nothing sticking out at the bottom either. Is there anything at the
bottom of
the Butternuts, and what's your experience with them ???


RON KA2IIA
================================================== ======
Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.

Jack O'Neill wrote:
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

--------------010908040802050606020907
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
html
head
meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"
title/title
/head
body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"
blockquote " type="cite"
pre wrap=""Hi again all,

/pre
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--------------010908040802050606020907--

What a mess.

--
http://NewsReader.Com/

I wonder where that figure of "20db" comes from? Did you just pull it out of
the aether?

"Charlie" wrote in message
...
I agree with spamtank about adding ground radials. My 5BTV has 72 ground
radials and it really does perform well. Pics of the installation here.

1. http://www.ad5th.com/5-BTV.html

Ground return currents are the "other half" of any vertical antenna. Grab
an extra 20db by adding lots of them. Mine total around 1300 ft or wire.

Ron,

My HF6V is nearly 25 years old and still working. It's
really showing its age, and I'm planning to replace it
with an HF9V later this year. They're not cheap, and
they're not easy to tune, but once you have them tuned
properly, they're the best performing verticals on the
market.

Butternut antennas do not have any horizontal components
like many of their competitors' antennas have. You will
need a good array of radials, however. Look up their web
site and read some of the technical explanations on how
and why vertical antennas do and don't work. It will be
an eye-opening experience.

No matter whose antenna you end up buying, I suggest that
you install stainless steel hardware right from the start,
rather than using the zinc-plated hardware that comes
with the antenna. It won't cost much, and it will save
you the trouble later.

73,
Dean K5DH


In article ,
says...

Hi again all,

It looks like I'm going to get a Butternut HF9VX vertical to replac
e my 25
year old Hustler 5BTV. I looked at Gap verticals, but in all the picture
s I've
seen, they seem to have some kind of horizontal array at the bottom. I p
lan on
ground mounting this thing, and I'm afraid someone will trip on the arra
y and
destroy it. My old Hustler had no horizontal elements at ground level, a
nd in
all the pics I've seen of the Butternut verticals, it looks like there i
s
nothing sticking out at the bottom either. Is there anything at the bott
om of
the Butternuts, and what's your experience with them ???


RON KA2IIA
================================================= =======
Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.

"John N9JG" wrote in message
...
I wonder where that figure of "20db" comes from? Did you just pull it out
of the aether?


Wonder no more. It comes from an article on vertical antenna ground
enhancement off the DX Engineering website. Here is the link oh ye of little
faith...

1.
http://www.dxengineering.com/techarticles.asp?ID={A46FA56A-2E82-4AF9-9427-6592FC5CFCB7}

--

Charlie
Deep South 2 Meter SSB Net
www.deepsouthnet.net






"Charlie" wrote in message
...
I agree with spamtank about adding ground radials. My 5BTV has 72 ground
radials and it really does perform well. Pics of the installation here.

1. http://www.ad5th.com/5-BTV.html

Ground return currents are the "other half" of any vertical antenna.
Grab an extra 20db by adding lots of them. Mine total around 1300 ft or
wire.

Evidently that direct link won't work...Let's try this one

1. http://www.dxengineering.com/TechInfo.asp

This is the DX Engineering Tech Info page. N ear the bottom of the list is
the article titled "20db for $48.60"

--

Charlie
Deep South 2 Meter SSB Net
www.deepsouthnet.net





"Charlie" wrote in message
...
"John N9JG" wrote in message
...
I wonder where that figure of "20db" comes from? Did you just pull it out
of the aether?


Wonder no more. It comes from an article on vertical antenna ground
enhancement off the DX Engineering website. Here is the link oh ye of
little faith...

1.
http://www.dxengineering.com/techarticles.asp?ID={A46FA56A-2E82-4AF9-9427-6592FC5CFCB7}

--

Charlie
Deep South 2 Meter SSB Net
www.deepsouthnet.net






"Charlie" wrote in message
...
I agree with spamtank about adding ground radials. My 5BTV has 72 ground
radials and it really does perform well. Pics of the installation here.

1. http://www.ad5th.com/5-BTV.html

Ground return currents are the "other half" of any vertical antenna.
Grab an extra 20db by adding lots of them. Mine total around 1300 ft or
wire.

Your link does point to a page that contains an entry with the more
reasonable value of 3-6 db. Isaiah 36:12, in the KJV, also seems to agree
with the smaller value.

"Charlie" wrote in message
...

Wonder no more. It comes from an article on vertical antenna ground
enhancement off the DX Engineering website. Here is the link oh ye of
little faith...