With all of the talk about the HF2V, I thought I would relate my experiences.
I have used mine on 160 for 2 years now with semi-decent results from here in
North Texas. I use 8 toploading wires, each 25 feet long and each somewhere
between parallel to ground and 45 degrees. I use almost 2 miles of
radials(about 110, 100ft long radials) and yes, it is ground mounted.
As far as the top loading connection point is concerned, I would much rather
connect at the very top, but the instructions explicitly state not to connect
the wires any closer that 2 sections from the top which is roughly 6 feet. The
tubing is just too small and would not support the weight except for only the
smallest wires. I have considered re-engineering mine to make it taller AND
allow for true "at the top" top loading. These mods are still in the initial
consideration phases.
I have found that my toploading shifts 40 meters resonance down to almost 5
Mhz, so I dont use mine on 40. I have also found that I have to bypass better
than half of the 80m coil to get a match on 80 and 2 or 3 turns on the 160 coil
for a match there.
The stock base transformer coil wont work and I found that I had to wind my
own... 100 turns, close spaced, on a 1 inch diameter piece of nylon stock
worked for me and is a decent compromise for both bands..
This setup works fine on 80 and ok on 160.... My best 160 DX with the antenna
was JA and G on the same day/night last fall. That was with about 500 watts.
I realize that I have creeped off topic here, but with all the talk about the
HF2V, I just wanted to give my experiences. Like Brett said in his email, it
really isnt even an over-glorified rubber duck on 160, but it can work *ok*(by
my standards) with a few mods.
73,
John KB5NJD
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