[WA6CDE]

Originally Posted by W9WLS

Many years ago, COLLINS RADIO had a version of this as a "DIPOLE" in one of their "FIELD KIT'S" , had a coax connector and two 100 foot steel tapes mounted on a insulating board.
You pulled the tape's out to the required length , locked them in place and hauled the thing up a tree or whatever, stretched out the tapes and secured them and you had a temporary DIPOLE.
If I remember correctly "B&W" had a version (they might have even made the one in the Collins Kit) and a bit later "HY-Gain" marketed one.

Indeed they made one at hygain also... had one.. kinda heavy thought... but their was a article in EHAM on how to build one. I think the bigger problem is the left over tape measure inside the reel.. causing inductance.. several were made using fishing fly reels also with some of that flex wire. Here is the article http://www.eham.net/articles/16944 but a better one is this one that is much lighter http://www.eham.net/articles/7949
Good luck as we found that a good ICOM AH4 and 65 ft of wire ...along with a ground works great on our ICOM 7000 just about anywhere