[amsat-bb] Re: no patches for offset dishes!!

["WL7M" <joe@xxxxxxx>]

I'm all in favor of making do with what you've got. If I had listened to the
theorists regarding over illuminating offset dishes, I'd still be off the
air on AO40. Instead, I scrounged a free Primestar offset dish that was
being used to cover a stack of firewood, modified a few scrounged parts and
pieces to make a mount, and bought a patch feed from James, G3RUH. A counter
balance made from an old weight lifting set that I hadn't used in a decade
made it all come together. 

Although it may be over illuminated, I can hear AO40 extremely well. I feed
the downconverted signal to my Icom 756Pro and I can "see" my uplink signal
on the bandscope. That makes it easy to keep Leila from attacking me (reduce
power until the uplink is below the beacon) and makes it easy to "find
myself" when trying to zero beat someone calling CQ. 

Rather than get involved in all the technicalities, I say go for it. I've
tried a helix feed, but prefer the patch due to the greater structural
integrity and "winter proofing", especially important here in the arctic
climate of Alaska. I've had NO problems with either the patch feed or the
Primestar surplus dish - and I'm operational on AO40 despite the "over
illumination" theories.....you can see the pictures on my web site.

73,
Joe
WL7M
Fritz Creek, Alaska
http://www.xyz.net/~joe
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