I cobbled together a half-wave 2 meter dipole out of scrap wood and scrap 10AWG wire and a piece of 45 year old RG58. I put my NanoVNA on it and trimmed it to 146 MHz.
My first attempt using scrap #8 copper wire failed. So, i did not expect this one to turn out very good. I was surprised. At 146 MHz, SWR 1.185:1. The SWR is almost flat between 145 MHz and 147 MHz.
This antenna connected to a HT putting 4 watts can hit a local repeater with a good signal some 15 miles away, non-line-of-sight. Moderately hilly terrain.
