I’m not an expert either, but my understanding is that polarization changes result from passage through the ionosphere. It’s impossible to predict how the polarization will change without knowing the state of the ionosphere along the signal path at any given moment.
Emperically, I know that switching the handedness of CP can almost completely eliminate fades (it doesn’t work on all fades, but I suspect the ones not affected are actually signal blockages by the ISS structure). I have experienced this many times while operating the ARISS telebridge station in Maryland. There have also been passes with no noticeable fades, so switching isn’t always necessary.
Dave, W8AAS
On Mar 19, 2018, at 2:33 PM, Burns Fisher burns@fisher.cc wrote:
I'd really like to understand this better, but it is still not making sense to me. I believe that if you are transmitting with a CP antenna, the E and M waves actually go through an entire circle in one carrier cycle and a CP antenna is able to "follow" that. Surely a satellite is not spinning at anywhere close to 145 or 450 million revs per second, so I don't get "spinning satellite" as an explanation for why an LHP or RHP antenna might work better at different times.
What I do get is that a CP antenna can receive linearly polarized waves at any angle equally. But this should be true whether the antenna is LHP or RHP, and I would not think which direction should matter if the signal is linear in the first place, even if the signal is spinning slowly.
That all said, I have definitely heard people say that they can get better reception by changing from LHP to RHP. I'm not saying this is not true. Just that I don't understand it.
73,
Burns WB1FJ
On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 1:57 PM, Jean Marc Momple < jean.marc.momple@gmail.com> wrote:
Guys,
Long debate for not much. I have followed this stream and believe that I need to intervene.
It is very simple, most HAM birds does spin (sometimes a lot) and there is no way one can anticipate as different from one bird to others. It is just operator skills (on the spot) to determine/switch from LHCP or RCCP based on what is the best received signal strength. It works both on the Uplink and Downlink. There is no miracle formulae and it is a just operator skills as mentioned before.
For commercial birds it is totally different game and should not be compared with our humble Ham birds, they have much more means to do things that we cannot afford to do, except if all HAM worldwide donate to AMSAT, say $10 we then may be able to match some of the features commercially available.
Just a suggestion and food for thought.
73
Jean Marc (3B8DU)
On Mar 19, 2018, at 8:54 PM, Franklin Antonio antonio@qti.qualcomm.com
wrote:
When you say a satellite "has" RHCP, we have to be careful that we're
communicating clearly about what "has" means. Every satellite "has" both, by virtue of he way antennas work.
I suspect that you mean that the satellite has an antenna which
transmits RHCP in its main lobe. It is important to realize that the signal from such an antenna is only RHCP in its main lobe. The sidelobes are gonna be LHCP. In between, you can get anything in between. So if a satellite is oriented so that its antenna points right at you, and they designed it to be RHCP, then that's what you're gonna get, but if it is pointing off to the side, then you get something else.
This means that there are situations in which you might get a stronger
received signal if you switch to LHCP, or maybe even to linear. In the commercial satellite biz, they design satellites so that their antennas point at the users. Hams build cheaper satellites, which typically don't have sophisticated attitude control, so sometimes they point away from you. Also, hams try to use the things even when conditions aren't the best. If that's your aim, then most folks have found that polarization switching sometimes helps.
From: AMSAT-BB amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org on behalf of Jordan Trewitt
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2018 2:43 PM To: Eduardo PY2RN Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Antenna Polarization Question
Maybe I'm not understanding it, but why does one need to switch between both, unless a particular satellite has LHCP or RHCP? Jordan KF5COQ
On Sun, Mar 18, 2018, 16:34 Eduardo PY2RN py2rn@arrl.net wrote:
Hi Brian, Both. You are going to need to switch between RHCP and LHCP often
during a
sat pass. The same happens if using linear polarization (V/H) but in
this
case the switch between V and H will happen much more often than in CP. 73 Ed PY2RN
From: Brian via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org>To: "amsat-bb@amsat.org" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2018 6:21 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Antenna Polarization Question
Should I be using LHCP or RHCP when setting up the 2 meter and 440
yagi's
to work the LEO's.
Thank you
Brian, KG8CO
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AMSAT-NA.
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AMSAT-NA.
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Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb