Clayton,
Yesterday I had 25 years of antennas destroyed, including the tower, and am toying with seeing what can be done with omnis rather than rebuilding what was essentially a P3 station. Fortunately the preamps survived. An array of multiple antennas with selectable polarization would be interesting. It almost always made a difference with beams, sometimes a dramatic one. Lots of time between now and Dayton to ponder. :)
73s,
Alan WA4SCA
<-----Original Message----- <From: Clayton Coleman [mailto:kayakfishtx@gmail.com] <Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2013 4:11 PM <To: Alan Biddle; AMSAT-BB <Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ANTENNAS.US QFH Satellite Antennas? < <At the time we had SO-67, AO-27, AO-51, and SO-50 available, I owned <one of those antennas. I probably made somewhere in the vicinity of <250 contacts with it from my car. < <For reception of all those birds, I would rate them as follows: <AO-51 - Worked modestly without preamp, excellent with preamp, <even in motion <SO-67 - Almost as good as AO-51, even in motion <AO-27 - Didn't work very well unless I was completely stationary, even <with preamp <SO-50 - Barely usable unless I was completely stationary and it was <the *right* pass < <I wasn't active on the linear birds at the time but I suspect it would <work a lot better for FO-29 than any of the FM's. I sold it before I <added full duplex SSB to my mobile station. < <If you are looking for something mobile/portable, there are much more <cost effective solutions with similar or better performance. I have <experimented with a number of antenna combinations over the past three <years. < <If you're dead set on a fixed omni, it is hard to beat a 19" whip <combined with a receive preamplifier. There are pro's/con's to it. <Personally, I almost always use a vertical for mode J uplink mobile <and a 3-element yagi w/preamp for downlink. For mode B, I transmit <into a dual-band vertical on the trunk lid and listen on a 2m Arrow or <simply use the whole Arrow out of the window. (it can be done, albeit <peculiarly) < <Please tell us the application for which you are looking into using <the antenna...Mobile in motion? Fixed portable ops from car? < <73 <Clayton <W5PFG < <On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 1:50 PM, Alan wa4sca@gmail.com wrote: <> Hi, <> <> I was looking for something on QFHs, and found an <interesting set of antennas. <> <> http://preview.tinyurl.com/ougah8b <> <> They donated an antenna to the AMSAT Symposium 2-3 years <ago, but I have never heard one in use that I <> know of. Anybody use them, or know someone who has? <> <> 73s, <> <> Alan <> WA4SCA <> <> <> ----------------------------------- <> <> Keep Calm and Carry On <> <> _______________________________________________ <> Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of <the author. <> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur <satellite program! <> Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb <