Larry,

The type of antenna depends on how well you expect to receive the telemetry signals.

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the antenna the more packets you will receive.

This means that yagies are the way to go. The more elements the better.

If you track the satellite as well, then you will receive more packets.

Here, I use an eight element yagi and I could get more packets than I do, if I had more elements.

Its most frustrating to watch the incoming packets in the waterfall and not be able to decode them because they are too weak.

A preamp can be a help BUT remember the preamp is only there to overcome the feed line loss.

Putting a preamp at the receiver end of the coax is a waste of time. I have a preamp at the antenna end, but as I have helix cable from the antenna to the receiver the preamp is never turned on.

There was a pass this morning of EO-88 that never got more than two degrees above the horizon. I managed to decode fifty-six packets with this pass. The average distance to the satellite was 2200Kms.

Summing up, If you want peak performance then you need to put the effort into maximising your receive system. Long Yagies, low loss coax, N type connectors and tracking yagies. Anything less than this degrades your performance. By the way, make your own yagies and put a lot of effort to tune them for peak performance.

David