+1 to Greg’s comment.
If you can’t get into the birds with 10 watts (5 is more like it for most of them) you should probably take a good hard look at your rig. 
Running a portable setup will help make this point crystal clear.
A directional antenna is the way to go- for the benefit of ALL users.

Nathan
N5LEX

On Sunday, April 10, 2022, 6:52 PM, Greg D <[email protected]> wrote:

Agreed.  My first contacts were all done with a copper pipe J-pole and a
whopping 10 watts for the uplink, received by a Radio Shack DX-440
receiver fed by a long wire strung out to a tree in the back yard.

Unfortunately, the wonderful RS "Easy Sats" are long gone now, but folks
do pretty well with a pair of HTs and an Arrow antenna.  One gets a real
sense for antenna patterns and satellite spin when blessing the sky by
waving a hand-held antenna around.  It's something one can never truly
get an appreciation for with an automated Az/El antenna system.

Greg  KO6TH


Zach Metzinger wrote:
> On 4/10/22 11:04, Mark Johns, K0JM wrote:
>> Also, while linear antennas (horizontal or vertical) will provide
>> gain, they will also suffer from polarization fading as the
>> satellites tumble in space. Circular polarization, or the ability to
>> switch quickly between horizontal and vertical polarization, are much
>> preferred.
>
> That said, at least one operator has made solid contacts using only
> two "J-pole" type antennas, one each for VHF and UHF, on the XW and RS
> satellites. :-D
>
> Start out small and cheap, get your feet wet, then incrementally
> improve your setup. It'll be a lot of fun no matter what!
>
> --- Zach
> N0ZGO
>
>
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