Hi John,
I use an eight element Cubex quad on the 2M side, fixed elevation roughly 15 to 20 degrees, up 10M at tree top height (its the mid arctic, thats a good sized tree here). The azimuth tracking is manual (usually ahead or behind the satellite). For the most part I'm picking up the FM satellites beacons between 3 and 1/2 degree from the horizon just after updating the Keps and using Gpredict. The drop off as the satellite rises above the antenna beam, but decreases in range, hasn't been a problem. I can tell you from using the set up to bet a bearing on a stuck mike on an APRS WX transmitter that the beamwidth is pretty sharp, I can get the bearing to the stuck mike station consistently (its happened a couple of times) to within +/- 5 degrees using the S meter or better yet the scope display on WSJTX on MSK144.
On the 70cm side I'm using an old helix antenna I picked up used over 20 years ago, so my antenna is NOT dual band.
As an aside, with the antenna, with or without a preamp on the FM satellites I've had Q5 copy on a pair of stations that couldn't hear well enough to make an exchange to complete the QSO.
I have not affiliation with Cubex or any other antenna company. On my QSL I have a photo of my place with the antenna in the back and everything in site covered in a couple of centimetres of hoar frost.
Ron VE8RT in DP22
On Mon, 17 Jun 2019 14:05:56 -0500 John Geiger via AMSAT-BB [email protected] wrote:
Has anyone tried the Cubix dualband quad on the satellites? I am wondering (hoping) that it might have a better elevation pattern than my Cushcraft A270-10S dualband yagi does. On Mode B passes, the satellite has to get to a 25 degree elevation or more before I really have a good chance at getting into the FM satellites. It would be nice to have something that allowed for better success at the lower elevations also.
73 John W5TD (ex AF5CC) _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. 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: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb