Butternut vertical

[w2amr]

I installed a ground mounted 6 band butternut vertical out in the yard yesterday. It took me almost just 4 hrs to bury the 12 counterpoise wires around the antenna. After setting the swr I fired up the 706 on 20 meters I worked a guy in the Canary islands, 5-9 both ways. This is the first HF antenna I've had here with a nice low take off angle. CQ doggie xray.

I owned an HF6V for several years back in the 1980's and I found it to be a pretty good antenna. I have tried some other HF verticals but IMHO nothing can beat the HF6V for performance. I started and completed Worked All States with that antenna and a big chunk of DXCC with about 230 countries worked. I think you will find the antenna to be solid and a good performer, good luck.

I was told that the vertical that beats it is the dual band 40-80 M Butternut.

K9CJ uses a pair of them in CQWW CW and is competitive with his phased array. Sometimes he is in the top 6 in the country. Also, with him sitting in IL on 40 M, he misses an hour of operation during the sunset that the east coast has with Europe.

[w2amr]

I was told that the vertical that beats it is the dual band 40-80 M Butternut.

K9CJ uses a pair of them in CQWW CW and is competitive with his phased array. Sometimes he is in the top 6 in the country. Also, with him sitting in IL on 40 M, he misses an hour of operation during the sunset that the east coast has with Europe.
I wish I had enough real estate for something like that.

I was told that the vertical that beats it is the dual band 40-80 M Butternut.

K9CJ uses a pair of them in CQWW CW and is competitive with his phased array. Sometimes he is in the top 6 in the country. Also, with him sitting in IL on 40 M, he misses an hour of operation during the sunset that the east coast has with Europe.

I also wish I had the property to correctly install one of these. I have to say one thing about the HF6V is that it kicked butt on 40 meters. I had 4 radials on 40 and 4 radials on 20 which were really the only bands I was operating at that time. I was working midnight shift at the time when the solar cycle was near it's peak. I had a lot of comp time on the books so I would come home early once or twice a week and fish around on 20 meters. I worked a lot of the south pacific during this time and despite 100 watts into a vertical I was working the stations and mostly would get through on the first shot.

If you have the HF6V you are going to love it, as far as verticals go this one is descent. I had thought about getting one to put in the yard but beyond my property is a park and there is no fence. Also the kids play in the yard and I don't want to have to worry about one of them running right into it. I'm pretty sure that by the time the cycle swings up enough that I will be in a different place where I can install one.

[w2amr]

I was told that the vertical that beats it is the dual band 40-80 M Butternut.

K9CJ uses a pair of them in CQWW CW and is competitive with his phased array. Sometimes he is in the top 6 in the country. Also, with him sitting in IL on 40 M, he misses an hour of operation during the sunset that the east coast has with Europe.

I also wish I had the property to correctly install one of these. I have to say one thing about the HF6V is that it kicked butt on 40 meters. I had 4 radials on 40 and 4 radials on 20 which were really the only bands I was operating at that time. I was working midnight shift at the time when the solar cycle was near it's peak. I had a lot of comp time on the books so I would come home early once or twice a week and fish around on 20 meters. I worked a lot of the south pacific during this time and despite 100 watts into a vertical I was working the stations and mostly would get through on the first shot.

If you have the HF6V you are going to love it, as far as verticals go this one is descent. I had thought about getting one to put in the yard but beyond my property is a park and there is no fence. Also the kids play in the yard and I don't want to have to worry about one of them running right into it. I'm pretty sure that by the time the cycle swings up enough that I will be in a different place where I can install one.
I put this one next to the L/R corner of my garage. The building is wood and the siding is plastic so I don't think I will have any problems with it coupling to the garage.
I was on 75 AM this morning with a buddy down in Maryland, and did an A/B test between the vertical and my inverted vee. Surprisingly the vertical was down only about 5 DB compared to the VEE. I'm happy with it.

[M0GLO]

I was told that the vertical that beats it is the dual band 40-80 M Butternut.

K9CJ uses a pair of them in CQWW CW and is competitive with his phased array. Sometimes he is in the top 6 in the country. Also, with him sitting in IL on 40 M, he misses an hour of operation during the sunset that the east coast has with Europe.
I wish I had enough real estate for something like that.

How much space you need to phase em like that?

[W3ZR]

I owned an HF6V for several years back in the 1980's and I found it to be a pretty good antenna. I have tried some other HF verticals but IMHO nothing can beat the HF6V for performance. I started and completed Worked All States with that antenna and a big chunk of DXCC with about 230 countries worked. I think you will find the antenna to be solid and a good performer, good luck.

Ditto what Dave #2 said... My old HF6V is about 10 miles away I think, and if the OM I gave it to isnt using it, I may
get ballsy and install a new radial field here and put it back on the air.

I was told that the vertical that beats it is the dual band 40-80 M Butternut.

K9CJ uses a pair of them in CQWW CW and is competitive with his phased array. Sometimes he is in the top 6 in the country. Also, with him sitting in IL on 40 M, he misses an hour of operation during the sunset that the east coast has with Europe.
I wish I had enough real estate for something like that.

How much space you need to phase em like that?

Probably at least 70 x 100 ft. for 40 M operation only.

I was told that the vertical that beats it is the dual band 40-80 M Butternut.

K9CJ uses a pair of them in CQWW CW and is competitive with his phased array. Sometimes he is in the top 6 in the country. Also, with him sitting in IL on 40 M, he misses an hour of operation during the sunset that the east coast has with Europe.

I also wish I had the property to correctly install one of these. I have to say one thing about the HF6V is that it kicked butt on 40 meters. I had 4 radials on 40 and 4 radials on 20 which were really the only bands I was operating at that time. I was working midnight shift at the time when the solar cycle was near it's peak. I had a lot of comp time on the books so I would come home early once or twice a week and fish around on 20 meters. I worked a lot of the south pacific during this time and despite 100 watts into a vertical I was working the stations and mostly would get through on the first shot.

If you have the HF6V you are going to love it, as far as verticals go this one is descent. I had thought about getting one to put in the yard but beyond my property is a park and there is no fence. Also the kids play in the yard and I don't want to have to worry about one of them running right into it. I'm pretty sure that by the time the cycle swings up enough that I will be in a different place where I can install one.
I put this one next to the L/R corner of my garage. The building is wood and the siding is plastic so I don't think I will have any problems with it coupling to the garage.
I was on 75 AM this morning with a buddy down in Maryland, and did an A/B test between the vertical and my inverted vee. Surprisingly the vertical was down only about 5 DB compared to the VEE. I'm happy with it.


To be perfectly honest I found operating on 75 meters with this antenna to be useless and not reliable for that band. I felt that the antenna worked best on 40 and 20 meters, 15 and 10 meters are bands I usually do not operate anyway. I chose the bands that I felt I wanted to use the most and I put down 4 radials for each of the two bands I operated the most. Unfortunately I did not have the available real estate to put down more radials otherwise the ground in my back yard would have had more wiring then my house did. If you know that you want certain bands optimized try to put down as many radials as you can for each band.

You will not be disappointed with this antenna unless their quality went down the tubes.

[M0GLO]

I was told that the vertical that beats it is the dual band 40-80 M Butternut.

K9CJ uses a pair of them in CQWW CW and is competitive with his phased array. Sometimes he is in the top 6 in the country. Also, with him sitting in IL on 40 M, he misses an hour of operation during the sunset that the east coast has with Europe.
I wish I had enough real estate for something like that.

How much space you need to phase em like that?

Probably at least 70 x 100 ft. for 40 M operation only.

Cool, then my barge will be big enough if I put one on each end.
Thanks guys, I'll start taking a look at this arrangement.
I'll have to rotate the whole platform for direction, but I'd have to do that anyway with a long wire.

[N2RJ]

If you're concerned about rotation you can always set it up as a four square and electronically rotate it.

[M0GLO]

If you're concerned about rotation you can always set it up as a four square and electronically rotate it.

The barge is long, but not wide. 35mx5.5m.

Plenty of room out in De Biesbosch to spin till I'm dizzy!

Gittin' back to the topic of the Butternut verticals, I think they are great because they do not employ lossy traps as other multiband verticals do. Also, with any vertical, the radials are paramount. You have to have good radials unless you have a vertical dipole, and then radials will help anyway.

Ground type is very important too. If you have poor ground types, then you will have crummy signals with most verticals.

If you have a horizontal antenna, ground type is not important but height is paramount of importance.

[M0GLO]

Thats been my take on it. I don't have the ability to lay down the radials where I am at and it hurts doc, it hurts real bad, in my nuts.

Wire wire wire and more wire all over the yard is the only way unless you live in an area with 1-2 soil.
Or on the beach, that's always good.

[N2RJ]

Would the ground conductivity matter with 100-120 radials though?

The well tech measured our water table and it was approx 8ft down. I'd say that's pretty good.

However I am not relying on mother nature except for terrain and propagation. If you want a good signal, you need to work at it or wait for the sunspots.

[M0GLO]

I've read that the effectiveness falls off after ~70 radials, diminishing returns for the time and money invested sort of thing.

Plus water table doesn't have much to do with it, we have water about as far down here (used to be a swamp under my house) but our soil is a pathetic 1 (poor). More to do with the salt/mineral content than anything else from what I remember.

[N2RJ]

Oh okay, got ya. Well, with regards to minerals, our water here is high in dissolved iron, so I guess that will help.

[K1OU]

Would the ground conductivity matter with 100-120 radials though?

The well tech measured our water table and it was approx 8ft down. I'd say that's pretty good.

However I am not relying on mother nature except for terrain and propagation. If you want a good signal, you need to work at it or wait for the sunspots.

Several years ago, I used a Cushcraft RV3 with 125 radials. Not comparable to a triband beam, but I didn't beat my head on the wall trying to work DX....

[n8ats]

i am looking to pick one of the hf6v's up as soon as antenna season starts to replace the mosley. the beam has been a nightmare. has anyone ever mounted one of these on top of a tower? i have everything of 80 feet of steel stick here to put it on and was just curious if anyone has tried this before.

[ad4mg]

i am looking to pick one of the hf6v's up as soon as antenna season starts to replace the mosley. the beam has been a nightmare. has anyone ever mounted one of these on top of a tower? i have everything of 80 feet of steel stick here to put it on and was just curious if anyone has tried this before.

Don't know if these are still available anywhere online, but I have about 6 pdf files written by Butternut in regards to their HF6V vertical ... kind of a "tips and tricks" series, including some info on grounding & radials.

If anyone is interested in these articles, PM me your preferred email (disguised from the 'bots - like:
ad4mg -at- hotmail -dot- com), and I'll be delighted to email them to you ...

[k3td]

Rudy, N6LF, has some great info on his web site about ground radials and vertical antennas. http://www.antennasbyn6lf.com/ I used Rudy's advice - and also help from W8JI - when I contructed my Inverted L. In my case I needed a stealth antenna (since I am in a deed restricted community) that I could use on all HF bands with an autotuner at the base. It performs quite nicely on 160 - 10 meters in large measure because of the 59 gound mounted radials.

Good luck and 73,

[wd0ct]

i am looking to pick one of the hf6v's up as soon as antenna season starts to replace the mosley. the beam has been a nightmare. has anyone ever mounted one of these on top of a tower? i have everything of 80 feet of steel stick here to put it on and was just curious if anyone has tried this before.

I had the 6v on a roof once with resonant radials. I thought it was ok.
Don't buy that quad looking counterpoise thing they have though.

Tried it too and it makes a decent antenna into a complete dog.

The hustler 4btv is a decent vertical too and much cheaper than the 6v.

These things are all way short on 75/80 and imo don't play worth a darn there.
I always wanted to try a 4btv with a reyco 40m trap on top with a horizontal wire running
from it tuned to resonance for somewhere on 75. I think it would actually play somewhat.