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 > > >