Neither are going to be very good on the FM sats, comparatively. You might make a few Qs per pass. If you are going to go to the trouble of going somewhere to make contacts, why not take a small UHF beam like the CJU or the UHF part of an Arrow? With that on the downlink, and a whip on the uplink, you can work horizon to horizon! My last trip, to Oklahoma, I used a IC-207 and 1/4wave magmount for the uplink, and FT-817 and CJU for the downlink. This afternoon it was the FT-857 and 1/2 Comet up, and a $40 Baofeng UV-3R HT and 4 element UHF arrow for the downlink. Both are horizon to horizon setups when parked, and holding the UHF out the window.
If you can only work while in motion and driving, well, nevermind, LOL. A 1/4 wave would probably be as best as you can do then, without going to something like one of the quadrifilars from antennas.us online.
73, Drew KO4MA
-----Original Message-----
From: John Geiger aa5jg@fidmail.com Sent: Sep 14, 2011 6:28 PM To: AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Good mobile antennas to use
I am looking to get on the FM satellites while mobile and activate some different grids. Can anyone recommend a good mag mount dual band antenna to use for satellite work? Does the MFJ 1/4 wave mag mount antenna do pretty good on the sats? I am guessing a 1/4 wave will cover more of the pass than a 5/8 wave would.
73s John AA5JG _______________________________________________ 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
Thanks for the messages so far. I am looking at using something that can be used while in motion-putting on some grids while driving on family trips. I realize it is far from optimal, but better than being QRT.
73s John AA5JG
On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 6:11 PM, Andrew Glasbrenner < glasbrenner@mindspring.com> wrote:
Neither are going to be very good on the FM sats, comparatively. You might make a few Qs per pass. If you are going to go to the trouble of going somewhere to make contacts, why not take a small UHF beam like the CJU or the UHF part of an Arrow? With that on the downlink, and a whip on the uplink, you can work horizon to horizon! My last trip, to Oklahoma, I used a IC-207 and 1/4wave magmount for the uplink, and FT-817 and CJU for the downlink. This afternoon it was the FT-857 and 1/2 Comet up, and a $40 Baofeng UV-3R HT and 4 element UHF arrow for the downlink. Both are horizon to horizon setups when parked, and holding the UHF out the window.
If you can only work while in motion and driving, well, nevermind, LOL. A 1/4 wave would probably be as best as you can do then, without going to something like one of the quadrifilars from antennas.us online.
73, Drew KO4MA
-----Original Message-----
From: John Geiger aa5jg@fidmail.com Sent: Sep 14, 2011 6:28 PM To: AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Good mobile antennas to use
I am looking to get on the FM satellites while mobile and activate some different grids. Can anyone recommend a good mag mount dual band antenna
to
use for satellite work? Does the MFJ 1/4 wave mag mount antenna do pretty good on the sats? I am guessing a 1/4 wave will cover more of the pass
than
a 5/8 wave would.
73s John AA5JG _______________________________________________ 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
If you can only work while in motion and driving, well, nevermind, LOL. A 1/4 wave would probably be as best as you can do then, without going to something like one of the quadrifilars...
Remember, the 1/4 wave 19" whip does perfectly fine on the uplink with any 35W mobile. That is never the problem. There is a 9 dB link advantage on VHF to boot PLUS the 35 watts!
The problem is hearing the downlink. That is why the 19.5" whip is so good. It acts like a 3/4 wave antenna for the UHF downlink and it has almost 7dBi gain above 30 degrees up to over 70 degrees. So it beats a quadrifilar easily (only 4 dBi or so overhead).
Bob, WB4APR
participants (3)
-
Andrew Glasbrenner -
Bob Bruninga -
John Geiger