First Antenna

I obtained my Amateur Licence in May 2020 after taking it online. Since then I did what most amateurs seem to do and bought myself a Baofeng UV5R. I dabbled a little in the garden at my old house and listened to some of the locals on 2m but then a house move resigned everything into the drawer of many things that we all own! Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I started watching some youtube videos and the Quansheng UVK5 seems to be all the rage along with Meshtastic. After watching countless hours of Andy Kirby, Ringway Manchester and all the US hams, HRCC etc, I also bought one of those and have been busy messing with the firmware and finally settled on egzumer. I have had little luck with the Nagoya 771 and the Abree antenna and aain little luch with a cheap extendable whip dipole courtesy of Amazon. Oh, I also bought myself a Nooelec RTRSDR v5 as Matt from TechMinds got me intrigued by SDR too.

So, today, after purchasing so RG58 from Waters and Stanton, I found myself 2 metal coathangers and crafted myself a 2m/70cm dipole following Mike M0MSN video from youtube.

I found some corex board and some block connector strip from the garage and set about cutting straightening and zip tying. AFter 30 minutes or so I ended up with the finished article.

I found the old camping flag pole which I think is basically a telescopic fishing pole and hoisted the thing up about level with the eaves of the house. Then I set the Baofeng to Scan and low and behold, I heard some activity!

I stumbled on a little net going with 3 or 4 people, some of who I couldn't hear but those that I could were coming in nice and clear. I heard, G0KAL, 2E0PPV and M7JCR who all seem to be over Lincoln way whilst I'm just on the outskirts of Hull but across the Humber from them all.

To say I was pleased is an understatement. So now, my enthusiasm is increased and I'm looking to make something a little more robust than what I cobbled together.