No reason why not. The power at each antenna will be 3 dB down, but you will get an additional 3 dB of gain for using two antennas, so there will be (nominally) no loss, assuming the antennas are oriented the same.

Or you could orient them 90 degrees apart, use an electrical 1/4 wave matching section of 75 ohm coax on each antenna, plus an electrical 1/4 wave phasing section of 50 ohm coax on ONE antenna, and you have CP radiation. Use a double-throw relay to switch the phasing section from one antenna to the next, and you have switchable RHCP/LHCP. In this case you WILL suffer a 3 dB penalty when working signals with linear polarization.

Another possibility I want to try some day: use a radio with diversity reception (like IC-2820). Connect one horizontal antenna and one vertical. No matching or phasing, no manual switching of circularity. Just let the receiver decide which antenna is pulling in the strongest signal on a moment by moment basis. Tx polarity is fixed, but you can turn up the wick to compensate!

On 04/16/2013 02:31 PM, Douglas Phelps wrote:

Any reason why, using identical coax lengths, you could not transform the impedance to 100 ohms and then use a T connector to sum both antenna signals and achieve 50 ohms to the radio? I know Transmit power will be 3 dB down at either antenna but is there any reason it will not work? Any antenna gurus out there?

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From: R.T.Liddy [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Tue, April 16, 2013 11:46:35 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Mount an Arrow on rotator with 2m vertical or horizontal

For the Satellites, it completely doesn't matter. At any given moment, you only have 1 chance in 90 that you will have matching polarization.

So, if you plan to use the antenna for other than Satellites, set your polarization for that purpose (V for FM or H for SSB/CW).

My plan is to install 2 Elk antennas, one V and one H. Then, have a relay that I can switch between the two and choose the best downlink signal at any given moment. This arrangement will also give me optimum flexibility for terrestrial operation on 2 & 440.

Now, where can I find a relay to do that function?????

73/GL, Bob K8BL

--- On Tue, 4/16/13, Lee Maisel [email protected] wrote:

From: Lee Maisel [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Mount an Arrow on rotator with 2m vertical or horizontal To: "Don Hoover (WS4E)" [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 12:24 AM

Hi Don,

I have mine mounted with 2m elements horizontal, because that's how it seems I used it most when it was handheld.

Lee W5LMM

Don Hoover (WS4E) wrote:

...

Just wondering, should I mount my arrow with the 2m elements oriented vertical or horizontal?

I am planning on putting it at 15deg and just using a az rotator.

Does it even matter which way its oriented since the polarity of the sats are always changing?

Maybe I should mount it like this: / instead.

Just curious what some thought was the best way to go. _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. 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