2 years +48 deployments HF portable and antenna still going strong.

I use two AA 6-160s with great success. One is a spare and has been used to check its performance twice a year. My primary 6-160 Jpole has been used handling continuous packing and deployment for all my fishing and camping trips these last 28 months.

I have never raised it more than 28 ft for a sloper and use it NVIS at 16 feet flat most of the time across old military poles. I fish the Jackson and Maury rivers and a couple lakes along Skyline Drive, Virginia regularly and use the NVIS to radiate from 100ft down in the river gorges. Baluns are holding up just fine. I use this antenna with a W4RT Ultra 100 tuner and 706MKIIG typically at 50 watts. These antennas are keepers.