Butternut HF9V Vertical
(5/24/2008)
The St. Louis HF9V was dismantled in June of 2005 after 5 years of service during which time the coaxial tuning section was replaced due to an errant lawnmower. It showed little wear after five years. It was moved to the primary QTH in Valdez, New Mexico (north of Taos) where is was treated to a new mounted post and insulator, a DXEngineering Radial plate, and 15 50-foot radials. It replaced a Gap TitanDX as the second station antenna for contesting purposes. It's inability to deal well with 17 meters will not be a problem there as there is no contesting on 17 meters.
It is interesting to note how much better the 15 50-foot radials are than the shorter 15 foot radials. 80 meters is now so narrow that I have to confine my contest operation to a small segment. Since I only operate two stations on CW and RTTY this isn't much of a problem. This antenna performs well but is completely overshadowed by the BigIR MkIII.
In October, 2007 the original HF9V in Taos was dismantled to be replaced by the BigIR. It had been in service for seven and a half years without maintenance -- and it showed it. Movement around the single screw holding the base insulator to the antenna had worn the hole to be elongated to about 1/2 inch. The insulator around the 80/40 meters coils showed similar damage. The next user will need to purchase a mounting post and insulator, the first aluminum section, and possible the second aluminum section. This is simple as Bencher is happy to sell spare parts at reasonable prices. Maintenance, however, would not have prevented this. Either the antenna should have been guyed or the single mounting screws should have been augmented by an additional screw at right angles -- thus preventing the leverage effect and swaying caused by winds working on the single screw.
(6/12/2000)
On January 14, 2000 I built and installed a new Butternut HF9V vertical to replace the DX88 I had melted down the prior weekend.
In building the antenna, I was impressed at its much more robust "trap" arrangements. Where the DX88 had encapsulated traps wound with number 14 or number 16 wire, the Butternut had number 6 or so aluminum wire.
The antenna is quite clearly an HF6V to which there have been mods to allow use of the 30, 17, and 12 meter WARC bands. In tuning the antenna, the 30m band was easily tuned. The 12 meter band was more difficult. The 17 meter never got an SWR below 2.5 to 1. On initial assembly, 80 and 40 were easily adjusted, from the ground, to the CW portion. 15, 10, and 6 required taking the antenna down and making various adjustments. With minimal efforts, all bands could be loaded at appropriate power (1 kw output except on 30m) using the antenna tuner in the Icom PW-1. 20 meter SWR, where the antenna uses a tuned section of 75-ohm coax, was excellent on first installation.
Hint: before tuning 10 meters, tune 12 meters. The standard 12 meter setting is too high in frequency and affects the 10 meter tuning.
In an effort to improve the 17m situation, I contacted Butternut support. They were useless. They suggested I check for loose connections and said that the 17m tuning was very narrow. I have never contacted them again.
The antenna has been an excellent performer, excepting perhaps 17 meters. I have since added an HF9V to the installation in New Mexico. It does well there and, except for 17 meters, easily outperforms the Titan DX.
I spent quite a bit of time tuning the New Mexico antenna. I am now very happy with its settings on every band except 17 and 6. I can't complain about 6 as I've not really pushed on it.
On the other hand, I've spent several hours on 17 meter tuning and no combination of shrinking coils, changing position on the antenna or anything else can get it below 2.8 to 1. It radiates OK, but these numbers are contrary to the advertisements from Bencher. I have noted that both of my HF9V antennas are identical in this respect. This might be expected since both are ground-mounted with moderate radial systems. Casual reviews in the various internet newsgroups lead me to believe that no one has achieved low SWR on 17 meters without considerable tweaking, including removal or modification of the 20 meter phasing line.
The radial system is sixteen 14.5 foot wires buried 1 inch.
I'd recommend this antenna for high power and the "normal" bands. I'm not really happy with the 17 meter support which looks and acts like an afterthought.