Portable Antenna?

I have viewed the following instructable The Tape Measure Antenna am considering it as an addition for a bug out bag because the tape measure will curl up and the rest can be attached to a pack when not in use. does any one have one of these or any thoughts? I will be connecting this to a Baofeng UV5...

Thanks in advance

 

Good directional antenna...for an even smaller antenna, but omnidirectional, you can make a j-pole antenna from 300 ohm flat antenna lead (think old-school tv antenna lead). Lots of builds on the 'net

 

I was looking at Dr. Ed Fong's DBJ-2 antenna but was thinking that the power of a Yagi style antenna might be better than a Jpole and a bit more directional... with the + that it could be taken down quickly...

I'm still a neophyte on hams... just passed the Technician and missed General by 2 questions...

 

They both have their place, just pick the one that meets your needs...as small as they are, you could probably fit them both in!

...and congrats on getting your ticket! Now the real fun begins

 

of course it can't hurt to have it, but consider what likelihood that you'll need a VHF beam? If there are repeaters functioning, a vertical or J-pole will work fine. If they're not, you won't gain very much with a beam over an omni. You can gain a few miles with a beam up high but we're still talking about line-of-sight with VHF in any predictable or reliable way. A beam is useful for direction finding, however.

 

And a beam (maybe not the tape measure beam, but a little one like an Elk) can hit amateur satellites allowing one equipped with just a Tech license and a handheld to actually have irregular connections to other amateurs hundreds of miles away. Can be critical summoning help when in the bush or gathering intel post SHTF. And depending where the sats are when a man-made EMP detonates, some of them may be shielded by the earth and remain functional. A small portable beam can also be helpful with simplex sans repeater, been there done that many times. But I do agree that a good high gain omni, like a Diamond, is good, generally enough and should be the first antenna acquisition for a handheld.