Butternut HF2V
$$$$·
| Frequency | 80m: 3.5-4.0 MHz, 40m: 7.0-7.3 MHz |
| TX power | 1500 W (1.5 kW SSB PEP/CW; 375 W digital (75/80 and 40 m)) |
| Modes | SSB, CW, AM, FM, digital |
| Connector | coax attaches at the base (stud/post connection); SO-239 available via optional radial-plate accessory |
| feedpoint | base stud/post connection; SO-239 via optional radial plate (some dealer listings spec 'UHF female SO-239' directly) |
Estimated (unverified): introduction year (1980s, Butternut Electronics era); net weight (dealer listings disagree, ~10-13 lb); feedpoint termination (direct base connection vs SO-239 - varies with radial-plate accessory)
Full legal limit on 80 and 40 from a 32-foot stick with a small footprint. The trap-free series-LC design lets the entire height radiate on both bands, which buys real efficiency and wider bandwidth than trapped competitors of similar size. Hardware is corrosion-resistant aluminum with high-voltage doorknob capacitors that hold their value for decades, and the brand has survived three owners with parts still made.
It is only as good as the radial field under it; skimp on radials and it underperforms a dipole. On 80 m the 32-foot height is an eighth-wave, so bandwidth is modest and you retune or accept a tuner across the band. The once-offered 160 m and 30 m kits are mostly gone, replacement doorknob capacitors are pricey, and the two-point screw joints benefit from periodic cleaning in the weather.
A low-band vertical that has stayed in production for four decades because the recipe works: full-height radiation on 80 and 40, no traps, legal limit, small footprint. Budget your effort for the radial system - that is where this antenna is won or lost.
The Butternut is 32 feet of aluminum tubing that puts full legal limit on 80 and 40 meters from a base the size of a dinner plate (though the radial field beneath it wants real estate the antenna itself does not) and it has been doing so under three different owners. Butternut Electronics was founded in 1976 by Don Newcomb, in Butternut Township, Minnesota (the township gave the company its name) and later operated from Lockhart, Texas; Bencher of Illinois bought the antenna line in 1994, and DX Engineering took it over in late 2014 and still builds the HF2V today. Roughly four decades of continuous production is rare air for any piece of ham gear.
The design earns it. Where most short multiband verticals use traps (parallel-resonant circuits that electrically chop the antenna shorter on higher bands) the HF2V uses series-resonant circuits of air-wound coils and high-voltage ceramic doorknob capacitors, so the entire 32-foot height carries current on both bands: a true quarter-wave on 40 m and a loaded eighth-wave on 80 m. More radiating length means better efficiency and broader bandwidth than a trapped design of the same height, and there are no trap capacitors waiting to fail. A small shunt inductor across the base (a hairpin match) lifts the naturally low feedpoint impedance up toward 50 ohms where the coax attaches at the base.
The honest part of any ground-mounted vertical review: the antenna above ground is half the system. The instructions call for a bare minimum of 12 radials, 20 to 45 feet long, and the manufacturer's own guidance is that doubling the radial count roughly doubles efficiency until the benefit flattens out around 60 wires. Over sandy or rocky soil, the advice is to run them up to half again longer. Physics also sets the 80 m terms: an eighth-wave radiator tunes sharply, so expect to pick your favorite segment of the band or lean on a tuner, and the optional top-loading kit exists precisely to ease that. The add-on kits that once stretched the antenna to 160 m (about 10 kHz of 2:1 bandwidth, per the original instructions) and added 30 m have mostly left the catalog, though kit stock still surfaces at dealers.
The aftermarket tells you what owners think of the bones: published modifications graft 30 m back on using parts from the six-band sibling, and at least one well-documented project adds a 20 m fan element to make a four-band antenna of it. If you want more bands from the factory in the same trap-free philosophy, the nine-band is the bigger sibling; the classic trapped alternative in the same niche is the Hustler 4BTV family. The remains the specialist: two low bands, done as well as 32 feet and a good radial field can do them.