Thanks very much, everyone, for all of the feedback and suggestions. Much appreciated!
Now to figure out how to adjust the DK7ZB designs slightly for satellite frequencies...
Martin. KD6YAM
On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 7:32 AM Martin Cooper kd6yam@amsat.org wrote:
I'm contemplating building a couple of yagis, possibly even crossed ones, and putting them up at fixed elevation (i.e. az-only rotator). What I'm unclear about is how many elements to consider.
My location is really pretty dreadful for seeing sky. There's a big hill to the NE that restricts me to above 40 degrees in that direction. I'm in a single-storey house, with neighbouring two-storey houses to the NW, SW, and S. In between all that, there are other single-storey houses, and trees in most of the gaps between houses. I can't afford to put up a tower (and it could never get above the hill anyway), so I'm looking at not too much above my roofline.
To at least get through the trees, I'd think more elements would be better. But more elements narrows the beam, and at fixed elevation, that, at some point, will restrict even further how much of the sky I can play with.
I'm looking for thoughts on how many elements would be recommended, and how many would be too many, for a fixed elevation, both for VHF and UHF. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to get on the linears, so not limited to the FM sats. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Martin. KD6YAM