 Before the rubber ducky, antennas on portable radios usually consisted of quarter-wave whip antennas, rods whose length was one-quarter of the wavelength of the radio waves used.In the VHF range where they were used, these antennas were 2 or 3 feet (0.60 to 0.91 meter) long, making them cumbersome.They were often made of telescoping tubes that could be retracted when not in use.