This guy recently made a neat roll-up antenna for 2m using "faraday cloth"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7K6DNLD9Wo

This guy has been making fabric antennas for a few years and selling them cheap on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204232411345

He also makes flatpack helical antennas: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196095158881

I think everyone from hollywood to big corporate companies have been buying his backyard inventions. He should feel really proud getting in there before the academics, youtubers, and opportunists jump on board! I bought this set back in 2019 and have had some really nice chats with the guy.

Just to add, he writes up on his stuff too:

He made an SBand antenna out of a Beachball: https://dalybulge.blogspot.com/2023/09/diy-gatr-ball-antenna...

Before that a Fabric Parabolic Antenna: https://dalybulge.blogspot.com/2022/11/updates-on-portable-p...

Explaining how he did the design: https://dalybulge.blogspot.com/2022/10/parabola-design.html

Great find - thanks for sharing!

I once threw a weight with a transformer wire and some string attached to it over a high tree branch in my yard to see if it would make a decent antenna for my SDR, it worked! It was an extremely inexpensive ~5m antenna

That's actually a really common lightweight SOTA[1] antenna.

[1] https://www.sota.org.uk/

My Lawyer says not to tell you a spud gun can heave a line a good height/distance if you want to make a folded dipole antenna using an old growth fir tree.

Just tie your line through a hole in a soup can and put it over the muzzle before firing a spud.