My stupid antenna project started life as a 2M Project kit from Hamtronics. You can buy one if you go to their site.

Not content with hanging it off the corner of the roof, what with me effectively living in a bungalow, I decided to bung it up on a kite pole, specifically one of these.

And it was working well. It looked awful, but it was ok even in moderate winds.

Of course the bottom end was really stable…

…being made out of a pedestal fan base and some tape.

But then I decided to encase the business end in PVC pipe, thoroughly waterproof it, add some strengthening bean poles, and see what I could get.

So, at the resting stage, lashed to the shed (not the shack, although the shed may become the shack) we have:

And at fully erect (which gives me flashbacks to when I did a blog post about Dalek skirts, toys, drive shafts, flanges and nubbins and got kicked off my hosting provider)…

Well, its about 7m up at the top end, more top heavy than Pamela Anderson on stilts, highly unstable in the wind, and currently a bone of contention between me and the bloke from next door but one.

On the upside though, on the SWR meter and nanoVNA i’m getting readings of less that 1.2:1 accross the 2m band and 70cm band, and an acceptable 1.5:1 on PMR446 (no that I’m using it for that.

A downside is that I’ve ruined my portable antenna, and will have to make another one to keep in my portable bag.