Op 21-1-2012 19:36, Clint Bradford schreef:
...>> ... what is essential for a successful and pleasant satellite operation, YOU NEED A PREAMP!
One thing that I have shown to about a hundred audiences LIVE as I work passes in front of them is there is absolutely NO NEED to spend money on pre-amp to successfully work the FM LEOs. AO-27 and SO-50 are received wonderfully with just improved antennas on handheld radios/scanners.
If you cannot hear '27 and '50 and the ISS - nor worked '51 and heard ARISSat-1 when they were available - with just a "better" antenna (suggestions on the ANTENNAS page at work-sat.com), then something is wrong with your setup.
Might a pre-amp be on one's list as a future purchase to work other birds? Quite possibly.
Good point, a preamp is to cancel out the cable losses, anymore and you are just boosting the background noise and not improving the reception. So if your cable is very short there is not point in using a preamp.
I even dare to say that you can have more succes using a portable setup then a fixed instalation with preamps and elevation rotors because you can adjust polarisation, theoreticly this can give a gain upto 30 dB, in practice somewhere between 3 and 9 dB.
73 Andre PE1RDW