[amsat-bb] Dish sizes and local government/ BBQ dishes

["Frederick M. Spinner" <fspinner@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From: "Matt -VK2DAG-" <vk2dag@bigpond.com>
>Reply-To: "Matt -VK2DAG-" <vk2dag@bigpond.com>
>To: <amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org>
>Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AO-40 AGC study,please read it!
>Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 17:12:55 +1100
>
>Fred W0FMS wrote:
>
> >I suspect 1m dish owners are hearing "well enough" with reasonably low
> >squints but the BBQ dishes have always been marginal.  During higher
> >squints, the 1m dishes are marginal and so on...  I started with a 4' 
>prime
> >focus dish and a patch feed and then tried a BBQ... The BBQ was not even
> >close.   The 4' was good except for the worst conditions.  But a 10' 
>would
> >have probably salvaged the worst conditions....
>
> >I think we need to let everyone know that BBQ's are really only okay as a
> >receving setup when the sat is at very low squints....and that
> >no, really, bigger is better.
>
>Hang on!  Some of us can't have "bigger is better".  I went from a 24 dBi
>BBQ to a 60cm offset dish and the local authorities sent me a letter in
>regard to "illegal antennas"!

Yeah, you Australians and the British sure have problems with your "town 
councils"-- thought we are only a little better off in the US as almost 
every piece of property here has covenants restricting antennas.  (And there 
are areas in any local area in the US with "Homeowner Associations" -- worse 
than a town council--- but thankfully they are avoidable when buying 
property!)  At least we have the "Primestar" exemption law that was 
shoehorned through our congress by the cable companies that owned P* that 
allows 39" and smaller reflectors to be exempt from Zoning and Conveants 
unless unsafe or in an historic district.  In the US there is no reason not 
to go to a 2-3' reflector...but as you stated in other places, this may not 
be the case...

I did state, from an American perspective, that not everyone could or wanted 
to have BUDs in a previous message-- and I guess this applies to you with 
the smaller dishes as well.  With having satellite TV services in the 
medium-powered Ku band available to Australia, I'm suprised that the 60 cm 
dishes are disallowed-- they really are not that big.

But then again saying you can only operate CW is a clue that at least from a 
technical standpoint my assumptions might have been correct about the BBQ 
dishes.

The thing I find wierd and maybe you can explain this to me, are AO-13 style 
15 foot long boom Yagi antennas ok at your QTH but not 60 cm dishes?  I'm 
just wondering because if this is the case, it would be a compelling 
argument for Mode V/U in future sats.  If not, then you are better off 
already with the S downlink and the smaller and smaller antenna argument 
supports moving up even higher in the microwave bands!!

Fred W0FMS

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