A buddy of mine has given me a Cushcraft A270-10S dual-band antenna. I was going to try to use it start my satellite antenna farm and was thinking of mounting it on a rotator, angled at 45 degrees up from the horizon and angled at 45 degrees polarization.
The main reason for the high up angle is that I live in a bit of a valley or as I call it a hole. North and South aren't to bad as I have heard passes at about 20 degrees, to the east my horizon is about 25 to30 degrees. To the west though I have a horizon of 40 degrees.
So I was thinking wit the antenna pointed at 45 degrees above the horizon would give me the best chance all around.
Am I on the right track or lost in the snow?
Or would I be better to just mount the antenna horizontal aimed at the horizon and take what I can get?
Jacob Tennant WF8S
Hi Jacob,
I have had a few of those antennas before. Are you only going to use it on the satellites, or are you thinking of using it for terresterial use as well? As you look at the antennas, one set of elements is on the top of the boom and the other set of elements are on the bottom of the boom. When it is mounted for horizontal polarization, the band that is on the top has a rather high angle of elevation. I always mounted it with the UHF elements on top, so the satellites would have to get up a bit in elevation before I could really pick them up well on Mode J. When VO52 was on, being Mode B, I would work it from horizon to horizon. The band on the bottom side of the boom seemed to function as one would expect a yagi to.
If you were only going to use it for the satellites, mounting it for vertical polarization might eliminate this problem and give similar performance on both bands. I have never tried that, but someone who has might answer that question for you (and for me if I ever get another one). I am now using separate antennas for 2m and 70cm and the Diamond 15 element yagi I have for UHF hears SO50 better than the A270-10S usually did.
73 John AF5CC
P.S. congrats on the 2 x 1 callsign as well!
On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 9:52 PM, Jacob Tennant jakewf8s@gmail.com wrote:
A buddy of mine has given me a Cushcraft A270-10S dual-band antenna. I was going to try to use it start my satellite antenna farm and was thinking of mounting it on a rotator, angled at 45 degrees up from the horizon and angled at 45 degrees polarization.
The main reason for the high up angle is that I live in a bit of a valley or as I call it a hole. North and South aren't to bad as I have heard passes at about 20 degrees, to the east my horizon is about 25 to30 degrees. To the west though I have a horizon of 40 degrees.
So I was thinking wit the antenna pointed at 45 degrees above the horizon would give me the best chance all around.
Am I on the right track or lost in the snow?
Or would I be better to just mount the antenna horizontal aimed at the horizon and take what I can get?
Jacob Tennant WF8S _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. 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: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (2)
-
Jacob Tennant -
John Geiger