[Antennas] Butternut HF2V

Mon Aug 21 22:09:19 EDT 2006

Greetings Deon,
I've owned and used the HF2V and had the 160M add on coil also. It seemed to work
well on 40 and fair on 80, but was a real pain to move/assemble/disassemble. Over
the past few years when traveling around the US to several annual "Eyeball" meetings
with the 3905 Century Club, I came up with an effective yet uncomplicated portable
and sorta-center loaded vertical for 80 and 40M for use away from home. I use a Hi-Q
4/80 MT ( www.hiqantennas.com ), a 20 ft whip made from (5) four foot sections of
telescoping aluminum tubing purchased from Texas Towers (
www.texastowers.com/aluminum.htm ), a six spoke - 3 ft dia - cap hat (made from 2M
whips), and 6 full length radials I lay out in the direction of desired radiation
(more radials would be better). I attach all of this on a Delrin insulator that is
mounted on a five foot Radio Shack TV mast I have cut in half (so it fits in a
shorter box). In the bottom of the lower piece of mast, I welded in a nut so I could
thread in a sharpened "spike" with a foot peg fitted to the spike so I could step on
the peg and set the spike and mast well into the ground. Once the lower end has been
placed, everything is held upright with three tent pegs and guy ropes. I have had
very satisfying results with this antenna, and have even been able to attach it to my
truck and operate mobile ! Certainly not legal on our highways, but truly mobile.
This year, I used it for our local club's CW Field Day antenna and it worked very
well on
80, 40, and 20. If you would like some pics, give me a shout.
Now for shipping, you can easily obtain cardboard shipping containers made for skis
and
golf clubs. For air travel with my stuff, I use heavy duty, large diameter PVC
plumbing pipe with screw on end cap. If price is not a factor, go to the travel
suppliers and get professionally made golf or ski carriers.
I hope you have a safe and enjoyable DX-Pedition.
73,
Tom AA1NZ