Topband: Re: [Topband] HF2V

[VR2BrettGraham]

K4ZC asked about elevated HF2 & counterpoises.

I use an HF2 for the lower bands & sits about 9m above ground (1m above the 
corner
of the roof of a three-floor concrete house).  It has five stub-tuned 
radials made of
450-ohm punched-window twinlead ladder-line, scaled down from Butternut's
40/20/15/10m radial product for the HF6.  I also have a several extra 
radials deployed
which are close to reasonance on 30 & 40m.  All of these radials are reasonably
equally placed around the base & where possible, an equivalent radial is 
180-degrees
away from another.

When operating on 160, I connect two further 160m radials which are very 
close to
be 180-degrees apart (though too long - now down to 1.7 Mc as I'm too lazy 
to trim
them as they stretch).  I also add three top-loading wires as far up the 
radiator as
possible, again, reasonably spaced (a fishing pole is extended away from 
the house
in order to secure one of the top-loading wires).

Between the top loading & my shorting out the 160m stuff at the bottom means no
auto-bandswitching, which has given me the chance to experiment with which
radials to connect when on 160 & I have found the thing only plays when _all_
the radials are connected.  The higher band radials add substantially to its
performance on topband.

WB9Z remains my best DX with it, which isn't bad for something that isn't
even a glorified rubber ducky of an antenna on topband.  Obviously, being a VR2
helps, but I'm afraid a true mast-mounted HF2 on 160 would leave much to be
desired as the trick is to top-load the radiator & be able to reach the 
coils to
tweak things - but compared to ground-mounted I'd go with it up in the air with
no top-loading unless it had a proper radial system on the ground...

73, VR2BrettGraham