("RST Engineering" wrote)
1. With a standard handheld, what would the average length be (approx)
for the rod(s)?

It is a function of rod diameter. With an infinitely small diameter wire,
the length for each rod would be about 23.2" for a geometric (*) band
center of 127 MHz. With a half-inch diameter rod, that would reduce to
20.2 and in between is in between. (*) The geometric center of the band
is the square root of the (bottom end of the band times the top end of the
band).


Thanks for the answers.


Montblack