This year is the first time I have really been serious about using a 
vertical.  I had the opportunity to get a gap challenger that had belonged 
to a friend of mine.  Even though it is ground mounted and only has radials 
in three directions, it does perform fairly well on 40 through 6.  It is too 
narrow on 80 and we weren't able to get it tuned to the portion of the band 
that I use the most.  It may not be the best but it is a way to get on the 
air when you don't have much space.


Also, in putting radials down, a friend of mine had some extra staples to 
run the radials across the top of the ground.  I used those and they are 
down tight enough that mowing over them is no problem.
73,
Bob
WA0KZB

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Simpson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 2:24 PM
Subject: Re: Thinking of an HF vertical


I'll add my two cents to the vertical discussion:

After considering tri-band minibeams for 20, 15, and 10 meters, I decided to
buy a Butternut HF6V six-band vertical, because I loved 40 meter CW and
didn't want to give it up. Also, since I live in half of a duplex, a beam,
no matter how short the boom, would swing over top of my neighbor's roof.
Now that I've lived here for several years, I could probably broach that
issue with him but at the time, I had just moved in and didn't want to
create unnecessary problems. I should also mention that the high-voltage
lines run right behind the houses here, and I was just a little afraid of
the wind blowing the beam across one of them.
The yard is only 20 by 24 feet, so there was no chance of putting
down the right number of radials, and certainly no way to approximate the
right length. But, with a friend's help, we laid down a dozen or so radials,
only radiating in a semicircle, because the vertical is at the very back of
the lot. Even so, using the LDG TW-1 talking watt meter, I've tuned up very
nicely on any band from 40 to 10, CW and phone. I get out on 75 meters, but
not great; part of that is probably do to the antenna's polarity. I've been
working Europeans on 40 CW ever since I put it up in 2005, and I easily work
Europe, South America, and Asiatic Russia on 40 through 10, these days. To
be honest, with my Icom IC706 MKIIg, I've heard occasional ZL and JA
stations, but I haven't worked them with my 100 watts.
Let me add, too, that before I put down radials, I imagined it would
be a very daunting thing; it wasn't, though sighted help was good. We used
garden trowels to cut thin, two-inch-deep grooves in the ground; then, we
tucked the radials into the grooves, and, about every ten feet, we wound the
wire once around a long nail, which we pounded into the ground, to help keep
the radials from coming up to the surface. As we finished laying down a few
radials, we covered the ground where we had been working with bags of
additional top soil. We did this in the fall, just when I no longer needed
to mow the lawn with my push mower. Over the winter, with snow falls and the
shift of the soil, the radials became absolutely invisible. By Spring, I was
able to mow without any danger of cutting one of them. Helping to install
the antenna and to lay down the radials really gave me a sense of ownership
and pride that I still feel when I tell the stations I'm working about my
setup. And, I had a great time with my friend.


73,

Dave   WI3Y

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Steve Dresser
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 1:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Thinking of an HF vertical

Michael,

Although I haven't had any experience with either of the antennas you
mentioned, I did at one time have a Butternut 18AVQ, which was supposed to
work on all bands from 80 through 10.  In fairness to the antenna, I wasn't
able to put down the kind of radial system stipulated in the manual, so the
antenna probably didn't live up to anything like its full potential.  That
said, though, it worked very well on 20, and I found that I could use that
band late at night, when it probably would otherwise have been closed.  On
other bands, though, the antenna was a very poor performer, with the worst
case being 80 meters where it didn't work at all.

In my opinion, the important thing to consider with a vertical is whether or
not you want to deal with radials, and whether you want to have traps, which
will make the bandwidth very narrow.  In general, verticals seem to work
better at higher frequencies, and in my experience, dipoles and other wire
antennas perform better on the lower bands, with the possible exception of
160 where many people like to use quarter-wave verticals.

Again, I am quite sure I would have done better with a good radial system,
but that's an important factor with most verticals.

Steve

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Ryan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 12:00
Subject: Thinking of an HF vertical


> Hi all:
>
> I'm thinking of adding an HF vertical again.
> My G5RV hasn't exactly out performed my old windom, about equal except on
> 40, slight edge to the rv.
> It's in an inverted V, apex at 50 feet.
> So I'm looking at 2 verticals, the Hustler 5BTV and the Butternut HF 6V.
> Anyone familiar with these antennas? Will they outperform my RV in its
> present configuration?
>
> TNX & 73
> Michael De VO1RYN
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>