Homebrew Dipole

I wanted a really simple and super portable dipole antenna for the 2m band for horizontal and vertical use, and which could be used on 70cm at a push.

Two telescopic aerials, a simple 1:1 current current balun, some coax cable and a few bits of hardware later and I have one.  The yellow string is marked with exactly the right lengths for the telescopic elements for each band - a built in measuring device.  

I tested it out yesterday, and it works perfectly.  

Now I've proved that I'll probably do a wee bit of polishing and tidying up and put some locktite on the screws holding the telescopic components in place...  

It's quite rewarding making stuff that works, and this is the first antenna I've made in about 20 years. 

Now I need to figure out how to use a build my VNA to test and tune the dual band J-pole I'm working on.  That has quite a lot of different bits to trim to get it working right on both bands, so it's a more complex animal and a bit of a challenge.  So far I have figured out a lot of things that don't work, and learned (or in some cases re-learned) some practical skills, a bit about antenna deisgn, some RF physics, new techniques for measurement and treating minor burns from a soldering iron...  I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but we'll see...