Quoting Howard Long howard@howardlong.com:
[snip]
could ever get a great match, particularly on 70cm. So I resorted to making circular polarisation work with the 2m and 70cm planes separated, and remote preamps and remote polarisation switches.
This worked _very_ well, and the gain you achieve by being able to manually switch polarisation during a null when working LEO's cannot be over emphasised IMHO.
One final point, radio amateurs have been doing antenna diversity for a very long time.
73, Howard G6LVB
A contribution to the original discussion, plus a question:
I believe it was on this list that I read of an alternative to fiberglass booms (of which there are none in my local sales area). My new 10' boom comprises sched. 40 conduit with an snug-fitting 8' length of doweling placed inside. Others have removed any 'play' between the doweling and the conduit by spraying expanding foam inside the ends of the conduit. I suppose one should cap the ends, too. The total cost of this for me was CAN $20. The antennas, rotors and mast are on sawhorses now, but as far as I can see the conduit-dowel boom has an appropriate stiffness.
Now my question: Howard mentioned the much-documented advantages of polarization switching for LEO satellite work. In this same context, is it worth the additional work to include the remote logic required for V and H polarizations along with RHCP and LHCP?
73, Bruce VE9QRP