M2 Antennas - I just added a 2m 4 element beam and 6m 3 element beam to my growing collection. These antennas were really easy to assemble and get on the air, actually the 6m beam is too large for my room. I am actually planning on making a portable vhf station to go along with my IC-910h and IC-706 MkIIg. Im planning on using a mast system from Radio Shack. A couple of 5 foot sections of TV masts crammed together and some cheapo guy rope and a little base plate should allow my home made guy ring to slide around and let me turn the whole thing some. Fun fun. Stay tuned.
Gap Vertical - I bought a gap vertical from Gene at KJI Electronics. I propmtly went home to put it together. For the assembly, I only have a few beefs with how they instruct to assemble it. The only real places I had trouble with it was finding whick peices where which by looking at them, I had no access to a tape measure which really was my fault. I think that they could somehow number the sections with permanant markes from the factory or something. I had a very tough time with tightening the screws into some holes, I had to deform the hole under force, which is all good except for I had to use so much fore that i got mildly blood blistered on my palm from turning the driver. About the driver..... they have all the screws 5/16" and the hose type clamps are something smaller. I have worked on plenty of cars and know that clamps exist that have 5/16" drive and are of the same width, but oh well, I just used a screwdriver on them. Below are some pictures of the beast on the ground. See my projects page to see how I mounted this for about 25 bucks!
2m J-Pole - I had the idea after seeing many pages showing how to build one, to just go ahead and build one for possible repeater use at my parents. I also might use it for an Echolink station here. Click here to see how to build one. I hope to get some pictures up soon.
G5RV - I put a G5RV into the trees at my parents house. It fit quite well into my yard with a slight aim towards Europe. It works great with a tuner since I cant really get it too high.
Hamsticks - I have hamsticks or hamstick clones for use on 160m, 40m, 20, and a regular CB whip for 10. They work good if you get them resonant in the middle of the band then use a tuner to move around. Mostly I would use these for fixed mobile operations while I was killing time at school. I have a nice bumpermount for these and the 160m one even holds on well at 80mph+!!!