Well done on making your first activation a successful one! Black Hill is a bit of a VHF black hole so you did well to raise four contacts on 2m FM from there.
I’m not surprised the Baofeng struggled. I agree their receivers are deaf. One thing you might try in future is to turn off its squelch. I’ve found that even the lowest possible setting, accessible only by reprogramming the radio using e.g. Chirp, requires a super strong signal to overcome.
Congratulations on the first activation. G/SP-002 is a bit of a pig on 2m thanks, to the Holme Moss transmitter. The key for me was a SotaBeams 2m Bandpass filter. This has saved me on a couple of activations.
There are plenty of options for alternative antennas for handhelds, for quick activations I use an RH770 from Aliexpress (two for £12). If I am staying longer I use a Slim G. These are a commercial version of the popular Slim J (£18 on ebay) or make your own, used with a Decathlon fishing pole (£14).
Another useful tip is to get an SMA to BNC adapter and use BNC versions of the RH770 and BNC connectors on your other antennas. These are more robust than the SMA connectors and stand up to the rigours of constantly changing antennas. If you are ever lower in the Peaks come and join me on G/SP-004 I work it regularly and can bring a couple of antennas for you to try including a Yagi.
Hope to see you on a hill soon.
Martin
I don’t really have any HF gear! Ive always played VHF/UHF!
I may take you up on that one day… im only in Oldham so most of the peaks are relatively handy for me, thanks!
Cheers - 2E0JWA
and apologies for jumping to assumptions!
73, Lea
Well, I have took the advice of this thread on board and have ordered some 300ohm ribbon feeder, and some co-ax and odds and bods to build a slim jim for 2M band using the supplied plans and calculators 
Thanks fella’s its all appreciated anf ill keep you posted as to how i get on!
Cheers
2E0JWA - Alan
Good man. There is huge amounts of fun to had making antennas.
Liquid insulation tape works well for waterproofing the joints on a home-made Slim Jim.
You need to be accurate following the plans, just a few mm at VHF frequencies makes a difference. A NanoVNA would be good for checking but just looking at the SWR will be fine.
Ive been faffing around all evening with a blooming slimjim, can i get it to SWR at anything under 3? Can I flipping heck as like… ladder line is awful to work with too… the outer is near impossible to strip without destroying the inner!!
Think i need something simpler…
2E0JWA
If you are working with 300 ohm ribbon, it’s very fragile. The ladder line with solid conductors is a bit more robust.
The flowerpot style vertical does not require ribbon or taps or stubs. It is made of coax and some 25mm conduit. See vk1nam.wordpress.com and search for flowerpot.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
I tried making one, following the instructions from a popilar website. It worked perfectly. On 136MHz! I haven’t gone back to it …
I can vouch for the flowerpot. It’s much easier to get working and can easily be made for 2m/70cm. Mine is robust. I’ve seen lighter and more slender ones though.
https://youtu.be/FBVhlfIdJR0 my one in action.
Cheers, Fraser
There is a classic “it’s on the internet, it must be true” problem with some designs. It only needs 1 design to be wrong with a few typos and everybody copies the article and then when you try to make one it’s no good. It happened with me.
See 1/2 watt from Cyrn-y-Brain for dimensions that worked for me.
You wont like Litz wire then! In fact working with 300Ohm twin cable requires the three P’s: practice, patience and perseverance. And a decent knife with a sharp blade.
I built one using the dimensions on this page and it works well with low SWR.
https://m0ukd.com/calculators/slim-jim-and-j-pole-calculator/
Yea I tried that one, and cant get it to work!
as a second note, i have successfully “flowerpotted” 2M Flowerpot antenna built, working GREAT, definitely less finnicky and performs superbly at the top of my roach pole vSWR 1-1.1 climbing to 1-1.3 depending what end of the band im on, so that’ll do! … here’s to the next summit eh!
Cheers
2E0JWA
Well done on your first activation @2E0JWA Alan. The first few are always the hardest! You’ll have the bug now, so maybe we’ll make a S2S contact in the future 
the flowerpot antenna will work well for you, but if you did want to go down the ‘Slim-g’ route, which I find is better, here is a link to one which works extremely well and I also use it:
Keep up the good work fella
73, GW4BML. Ben
yes! I hope so too… going to see how i get on with the flowerpot for now, but thanks!!
2E0JWA
Good Job! Considering the Solar Flares have wiped out comms on HF for the past couple of days. We are hardly hearing anything over here on this side of the pond. // John Paul // AB4PP
Flobalobaalobaloba…
2E0JWA
