"Jimmie D" wrote in message
...

snip

There are a lot of alternatives betwenn the rubber duck and yagi antenna.


He's right. I made my first FD contacts on 2M using a TV-twinlead J-pole in
a length of PVC pipe. Worked one contact over 100 miles with my 5 watt
Yaesu FT-530 very near ground level. (Yes, the other end had a beam.)

The TV-twinlead J-pole is a bit tricky to build. I much prefer using copper
water pipe, but I made one of twinlead since that first FD. Twinlead's big
advantage: it rolls up and fits in your pocket, as there is no ground
plane. With a simple plastic loop at the top, it can be hoisted aloft with
kite string or hung by a stray nail on Uncle Hank's porch roof, etc. Rigid,
permanent mounting is always optional but never required.

Plus, it gets them ol' RFs away from yor haid.

hi joe

this will fit in a suitcase if you use stranded copper #14 thhn
wire to build it. use sched 20 pvc (don't solvent weld it) so you
can just slip it together for use with short coax to the ht.

the half square for 2m nice gain but it is directional.

http://www.cebik.com/vhf/hs.html

73 james