On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 9:18 AM, vk5alx@amsat.org wrote:

I   use  a  homebrew 2x5 on a 2 metre long boom and it works very well with all current sats. 73s, Alex VK5ALX

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One of the other questions I have, "2m Satellite 2x5 does it have enough gain to work the birds?

73, Norman.

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73's Jan - PE0SAT

I've been experimenting with extremely cheap antennas and mast-mounted preamps. In a relatively radio-quiet environment, I can use a wire dipole on 2m -- directly attached to the preamp -- and hear VO-52 from about 5 degrees above the horizon. AO-7 is quite copyable, too.

The 2x5 of course has much better directionality, which will improve gain, and the circular polarization, which should reduce fading.

My point is two-fold. First, Alex, make the preamp your first purchase, not the beam. (Perhaps that's already your plan.) Second, you might enjoy playing around with a very simple antenna with the preamp first, before adding the complexity of steering a rotor through a pass. I'm certainly not advocating that people do without beams: I have a set of home-brews that are about 6 elements, and I've done most of my work with them. I just think there is a cheaper, easier, first step.

73, Bruce VE9QRP