Building a 2M Jungle Antenna

Brett from the Survivalcomms YouTube channel has this nice video on how to build a 2M jungle antenna. The only tool he used to build it was a Leatherman multitool. After he built and hoisted it he measured scanned it with a spectrum analyzer.

This is the same antenna design described by NC Scout on the Brushbeater blog, here. It's a 1/4 wave vertical with three counterpoise elements that create the ground plane.

You might wonder whether a jungle antenna or a roll-up J-pole works better on VHF. Realistically they are very similar but the J-pole is more portable. This archived thread from the Arfcom ham forum goes into some details.

One advantage to the jungle antenna is that some folks (i.e., me) may find it easier to build. When I've tried to strip 300 Ohm TV twinlead to make a J-pole I always mangled the conductors because the wire inside the insulation is so thin. In contrast I find it easier to strip insulation from other slightly thicker wire, like lamp cord. So, for me, if I needed to make an expedient antenna, I'd go with the jungle antenna, assuming I had the BNC-to-banna plug adapter.