I'm not a radio/antenna expert, so this might be a bit inaccurate. You want your antenna length to be some fraction of the wavelength, e.g. 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, etc.

I'm not a radio/antenna expert, so this might be a bit inaccurate. You want your antenna length to be some fraction of the wavelength, e.g. 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, etc. As the antenna length fraction gets smaller, it will have a less signal and more noise. Ham radio bands are much lower frequency than wifi, bluetooth, GPS, or cellular. The wavelength is equal to the speed of light divided by the frequency, so lower frequency bands need bigger antennas. So for example, the wavelength for a 144 Mhz you might use for amateur radio voice is 2 meters, whereas the wavelength of 2.4 Ghz wifi is only 0.12 meters. The advantage of lower frequencies is they travel farther. AM radio is a lower frequency than FM, so it travels farther than FM.