All of my 160m QSOs from J52US and 9L1US were made with a modified
HF-2V. In Guinea-Bissau, the antenna was mounted on a fifth floor roof.
Several random-length radials were laid out on the rooftop and a number
of full-sized radials were draped down the back of the building and
across a second floor warehouse roof. In Sierra Leone, the HF-2V was on
top of a third story roof on a building sitting atop Signal Hill, some
400 hundred feet above Lumley Beach. The site had an open water shot to
most of Europe and all of North and South America.
A wind storm damage the upper portion of the antenna early in the J5
operation. The only tubing I had on hand was larger diameter than the
original. Using the larger tubing enabled me to move the top loading
wires up to the very top of the antenna. That had the effect of causing
the antenna to drop below 40m resonance even using the full 40m coil but
improved things quite a bit on both 80 and 160m. The original 160m
doorknob ceramic capacitors were replaced with bakelite-cased WWII
transmitting mica caps.
The antenna was no match for an omega matched tower system like the ones
I used from A22MN and 5H3US but it worked well enough to work plenty of
DX, especially after modification.
Dave Heil K8MN
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