I have now received all the parts for the HF2V with 160m and 30m extensions, and I took a few days off in order to erect it during a long weekend.
Actually, most of the parts were already received around the 12th of January and the last part, the 30m extension, came about week ago. I received three packages, one containing the HF2V itself, one with the 160m extension, and one with the 30m extension. I was very surprised about how light the packages were, even the big one with the HF2V itself. The length of the packages were less than 1m. When I opened the big package I noticed that most of the elements were inside one another like a telescopic antenna. Very clever!
The pieces went together quite all right. From time to time, I encountered elements where the holes weren’t properly aligned and the screws couldn’t go through. It helped in all cases to turn one element 180 degrees. Otherwise, there were no issues while assembling the antenna despite the fact that the assembly manual is not too easy to read.
Unfortunately, there were several practical issues that made me give up on erecting the antenna.
First of all, it was very cold and my hands were really frozen.
Second, the feed line needed some preparation. The HF2V only has two screws on which the coax has to be mounted together with the loading coil. It would take some time for me to do this and it was beginning to get dark outside.
Third, I wasn’t sure that I could provide proper guying for the antenna and the wind was very strong from North-East.
Appearantly, my antenna karma isn’t too good these days. Next time I will have a chance will be around Easter, and I am not even sure how much vacation I will be able to take then.