Re: [amsat-bb] ao-40 antennas

[Al Lawler <alawler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

  I'm using the Phillips-tech 24dbi(Linear) bbq dish
with a DEM preamp and a drake 'easy-mod' converter
with great success.  I can definately hear as well
as the vast majority of people on the birds (and quite
obviously better than many.).

  My only concerns about the dish are:

  1)  The feed pigtail has about 3 feet of RG-213 (terminating
      in an N connector), which obviously has a 
      negative effect on the ultimate noise figure. 
      
      (I've been thinking about trying to just
      cut off the unnecessary cable, but am not 
      convinced that the cable loss I'd save would
      offset the losses of a hand-soldered n connector,
      and unfortunately, the feed itself is sealed
      in plastic making it impossible to mount the
      preamp without at least some pigtail.)


  2)   I STILL don't hear as well as the people using
       1-meter circular dishes.  This was apparent last night
       as my s1 sqint ingle got up to 15 degrees or so,
       and I was struggling to listen in on QSO's where
       both parties obviously heard each other just 
       fine, despite similarly poor squint angles.)

       I've caught myself on one or 2 occasions 
       accidently cq'ing on top of a very weak QSO.  
       (There is a LOT of activity on ao-40 at very low 
       signal levels.) 

  IN short, the phillips dish is a quite good antenna,
  and my setup is as good as (or better) than most ao-40
  users, but there are many people down by the noise-floor
  who are hearing substantially better than me.

  -al
  WB1BQE

  FT736r

  2x9 el cushcraft (dummy-load) yagi uplink
  Phillips spg-36 bbq dish -> DEM 13ulna -> drake
  


Richard Donner wrote:
> 
> Would people like to comment on the following antenna links for ao-40
> antennas for 2.4 ghz
> 
> http://www.hyperlinktech.com/html/products/antennas_2400.html
> http://www.hamtv.com/pdf.files/Cat4.pdf
> http://www.hamtv.com/cat97.html
> http://www.phillips-tech.com/main.asp?page=page6.asp
> http://www.ssbusa.com/ao40dishes.html
> http://www.downeastmicrowave.com/Antennas.htm
> 
>
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