It has been really slow the last week with radio stuff. I been on a staycation, but that only meant that I had more house related work to do and not a lot time to pursue any hobby related stuff. The best I have been able to do is to try to look at some possible DIY antennas for the portable APRS Digipeater project. There are of course a few options.
First up of course, would be sort sort of J-pole. For a 2 meter one, it's just under 6 feet. While I think I could build something, I think the size does not fit with my portable requirement unless I built it in a way so that it can break down into something smaller. I'm not sure how well that would work long term.
The next options is some sort of basic dipole. which would have a length of about 3.2 feet, a little over half the length of the J-pole. It's a much simpler build, but I'm not sure how I would have to build it to make it something I could use in a portable setup.
Finally there is some sort of ground plane type antenna. The biggest issue with it that I see is the radial elements of the antenna. which are almost 2 feet and are longer than the vertical monopole. While this seems easy to make as well for a basic one, I'm not sure how I would build it to be portable. I would have to have some way of removing the ground plane radial elements.
I suspect I just need to figure out how to build the basic dipole antenna. That seems like it would be the easiest to setup at least for an initial antenna.
No matter what I am going to need a lot of coax cable. That will be a fun one to explain to the wife.