Hi Steve;
Sounds like a nice system as it is. Wonder which miniquad you are using?
There was one around 20 years or so ago but I believe it is long gone. I
too have a ta33 (the junior version) packed away from a prior qth.
If you are using the old miniquad that I am familiar with, it had tuning
stubs for lack of a better description that were very brittle and broke off
if you looked at them wrong. The butternut mini beam seemed more durable
but I didn't like the price for the performance.
Richard
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Forst" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 2:29 PM
Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6
Well nothing fancy here. My old Mosley TA 33 is still packed away after
moving here 9 years ago. Keep hoping to get it up sometime, but has never
worked out. Have a small mini quad beam from Canada on a Radio shack 19 ft
push up mast. The mast is slightly elevated and with the channel master
rotor and short mast stub puts it at a towering 23 feet. Gives me some
front to back on 10 15 and 20 and maybe a little bit of gain. Side
rejection is fairly good and it also works on 6, so I'm content for now.
For low bands it's a trapped dipole from Hy Power antennas. 160, 75, 40
and I added a second 10, 20 dipole to the feed point. 124 ft overall
length, but 15 ft drops down before entering a tree. I've worked 47
states on 160 with 100 watts, so it seems to work well.
73, Steve KW3A
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Fiorello" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6
> Hi Steve;
> Just curious what are you using since you took down the 6v? I think your
> poor yard is smaller than my old one.
> Richard
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Forst" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 1:21 PM
> Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6
>
>
> Hi Richard,
>
> I still have the antenna, but not up in the air at this time, but had it
> up
> for several years. I never had the counterpoise kit, but after some
> discussion of it on this list, I read the pdf instruction manual on the
> Bencher website. Butternut says at the top of the manual that while it
> will make the antenna resonant on all designed bands, it is not a
> replacement for a real ground system. Also found it interesting that
> the
> matching coil at the bottom of the antenna isn't used and how critical
> the
> winding of the coax coil seems to be.
>
> I used the stub tuned kit and they were mostly horizontal. Base of
> antenna was 9 feet high and radials were between 7 and 9 feet depending
> on
> where the attachment points were for the far end of the rope.
> Butternut
> says they can angle down as much as 30 degrees.
>
> If you wind up with one of these and put it in an elevated location, be
> prepared to go up and down a few times. Factory settings should get
> you
> close enough, but if you want to tweak it for each band, you will raise
> and lower it several times, so bear that in mind when choosing a
> location.
> Of course, you can just get it close and use a tuner.
>
> BTW Mine was a 6v with the add ons for 160, 12, and 17 bought used for
> 70$.
> Never guyed it and never had a problem. Homebrewed a telescoping mast
> with
> 8 ft of fence post 4 ft in ground and 4 above. Into that one was another
> pipe about 9 ft long. Antenna base went into the top of this one. When
> lowered, I could work on the lower part of the antenna standing on the
> ground. A step ladder let me reach everything up to the 20 meter stuff.
> Changes in lower freqs had little or no change in freqs above 20 meters
> so
> once set correctly there was no need to mess with them. Drilled a hole
> through the 9 foot pipe and when it was raised to proper height a bolt
> was
> put into the hole and it rested on the top of the 4 foot of pipe
> sticking
> out of the ground. Wish I had a dollar for every time I had to make it
> go up and down to tune.
>
>
> 73, Steve KW3A
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard Fiorello" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 11:03 AM
> Subject: Re: radials for butternut v6
>
>
>> Hi Steve
>> I suspect my guydes were either to steep or to tight. The antenna
>> certainly
>> did fail at any rate. Are your radials horizontal or do they slant
>> toward
>> the ground? I'd like to find something that doesn't require guydes but
>> will
>> last. If I do this again I will put it on the garage rather than the
>> roof
>> of the two story house. I could find folks to climb up there but lifting
>> up
>> the antenna was quite another issue. Unfortunately, those most willing
>> to
>> do the work had no clew about antennas. There intensions were good. Had
>> one guy insisted I should use steel cable for guydes. How high is yours
>> and
>> have you tried the counterpoise kit? I was more than a bit surprised at
>> the
>> price of that kit. Good old sticker shock I guess. This antenna work
>> would
>> be much more interesting if I could do the work myself. Maybe the next
>> general exam should have a climbing test?
>> Richard
>
>
>
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