On 1/25/16 9:08 AM, A. Kevin Arber wrote:
Agree about the "Eggbeater" style. When I first returned to the sats I homebrewed a couple and they worked fine. But even better is a Moxin style which provides gain and circular polarization. See Larry Cebik"s article in August 2001 QST. I built these and they worked great for the LEOs. Great for portable too, as are omnidirectional. Kevin/W3DAD
I prefer them over the Eggbeater/Texas Potato Mashers, and the Moxons are a Field Day favorite for the linear transponder birds. Easy to set up, and with a small field day operation, I like simple. Have been able to work someone on pretty much every pass.
Never tried them for the FM birds or ISS contacts, I don't think they'll do well there at all during Field Day. Maybe normal operation, they would be "just okay" to "meh, need something better someday".
Image of the ones I built for field day: http://imgur.com/KAkV44Q
The design PDF is at http://www.oocities.org/w9bci/VHFUHFSatelite.pdf.
The next iteration of the 400MHz antenna will use an appropriately sized rod rather than 12g copper wire.
ka8ncr