Greg:
I havent worked with hardline before. This may be getting mvoed from time to time. For now, I will have it at home. I would like to move it to a Field Day location in June. Will hardline tolerate that or should I look at another type of feed line ?
Ron
Greg D. wrote:
Hi Ron,
I built the helix because they are fairly tolerant of slight differences in materials and assembly dimensions. I am by no means a precision builder, so this seemed right for me.
I have an ICOM 1271A in the shack, which is supposed to put out about 10 watts. This goes to about 5 feet of RG-214 (I think - it's the 50 ohm stuff that looks like RG-8, but has better shielding), to a box outside where there's supposed to be a lightning arrestor. That's on my list of things-to-buy-soon... Right now the arrester is just an N-N barrel connector. That feeds about 60' of Andrew hardline (LDF4-50A) up to the roof, where there is another barrel connector and another about 5' of that RG-214 to go around the antenna rotor to the antenna itself.
At 1.2 ghz and 50-odd feet, I expect that hardline is going to be a requirement. Or you could mount a power amp and pre-amp at the other end of the coax, along with power and sequencing logic. The hardline I got was a trade from another ham who worked, I'm guessing, in the CATV, Telephone, or similar industry. I got something like 180 feet of it in trade for a short 70cm antenna, enough for 3 runs to the roof. There was a bit of a kink in the middle, so that run is on a lower band :-). Ask around, you might be able to scrounge up something.
Good luck,
Greg KO6TH
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 07:50:44 -0500 From: rnutter@networkref.com To: ko6th_greg@hotmail.com CC: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Suggestions for Mode L antenna
Greg:
Thanks for your option. My antenna building abilities havent been the best, so I am looking at commercially made antennas.
What type of coax/feedline should I use ? I will probably have the run under 50 ft. I would hope I dont have to use hardline as that will probably be very expensive with the price of copper. As I get close to the antenna, should I shift over to a different type of coax/feedline so that I can rotate the antenna to track AO-51 ?
Ron KA4KYI
Greg D. wrote:
Hi Ron,
I've done ok on AO-51 with a homemade helix. See http://home.wavecable.com/~ko6th at the bottom of the page. I also have watts in the shack, but a full az/el rotor system. I don't know how sharp the pattern is for the helix, so I don't know how effective a fixed elevation system will be. But from the reports I've received, the 10 watts and my 60' of hardline with about 7 feet of RG-214 at each end seems to be quite adequate.
Good luck,
Greg KO6TH
Date: Sun, 11 May 2008 20:49:23 -0500 From: rnutter@networkref.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Suggestions for Mode L antenna
I am considering purchasing the 1.2 ghz module for my IC-910H. For my satellite work, I have my antennas angled at about 20 degrees since I dont have an az/el rotor. This setup worked reasonably well with Mode S this weekend. What are my chances to be able to work Mode L with this kind of setup ? Also, I would appreciate any suggestions for an antenna that I could use. With only 10 watts, I am not expecting a great signal but I would hope to have at least a readable signal. Also, would appreciate any suggestions as to coax/feedline that I should look at buying ?
Thanks,
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