I am currently working with three radio transceivers, one for portable (TH-79), one for station operation (TM-742), both dual band VHF and UHF, and my last acquisition is one all mode HF-VHF-UHF rig (FT-857).
I have some vertical antennas to work Portable and mobile. Here a summary:
Portable VHF & UHF: Diamond RH 770 , 3/5.5 dBi , 93 cm , 1/2-5/8 Lambda
Portable HF: Yaesu ATAS-25, 40-10 meter bands.
Mobile: Comet SB7 , 4.5/7.2 dBi , 1.38 m , 6/8-5/8x3 Lambda
I think it is most interesting to speak about my Home made antennas.
4 Element Yagi for VHF / 7 Elements Yagi UHF
I decided to look for and build one directive 2m antenna to use it in field days and work with our local spanish telebridge, and also to build as well a cross yagi in the same boom to have an Arrow for Satellite operation..
I looked for information in the net, and found some interesting schemas of a 4 Elements antenna. Its most interesting feature was that it was short (I didn't want to build a big one for the case of carrying it after climbing...).
The author of this design is Kent Britain WA5VJB.
Look for complete details in its construction at the "Homebrew" section in this web.
I have to use some wiring to avoid the wind makes it goes down !
I wanted a directive antenna circularly polarised to begin working the sats, and rode a lot of literature.
I choose this TPM-II (Texas Potato Masher) with improved properties to work LEO satellites and easy to carry also with me in field days.
The author is Jerry (K5OE) and you can find in his Web page a really helpful collection of information and practical hints for building your own antenna.
Boom is PVC pipe diameter 25 mm.