Re: [amsat-bb] Re: TS-2000X

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

I never said that a BBQ doesn't cut it.  I said it was marginal.  When you 
finally decide to try a 3'-4' solid dish with a CP
feed you'll find your BBQ in pieces behind the garage like mine is.  I paid 
good money for the BBQ.   I got the dishes for free.
What I'm trying to preach here is that 10dB more signal for less money but a 
little more effort in mounting is worth it.

What we are trying to tell you is:  try the bigger dish.  You will not want 
to go back.  In the meantime, of course use what you
have and understand it's features and limitations.

The only thing keeping BBQ's alive is the crappy Yaesu rotors we all use.  
And yes I have one.  I can't believe I paid $525 for
the thing when a $75 TVRO actuator is built 15x better.

In my setup the beacon was a loud S-3.  That places stations at S-1 to S-1.5 
in SSB.  At the noise floor, workable but not great. (I'd get a headache 
after an hour or two)  Going to the 4' dish the beacon on the same equipment 
was S-7 to S-9.  The SSB stations are at S-3 to S-5. (Noise at about S-0 on 
the 4'... I never heard it on the BBQ)   Actually it's like using your local 
repeater at that point.  And yes, there is that much difference.  You are 
probably doing better than I was with your BBQ because you have a good 
converter like a SSB... I use
junk because I can...

AO-40 was designed to work with your BBQ.  We've has some unfortunate luck, 
as well as much fortunate luck.   Having a little
receive buffer is a good thing.  I disagreed with G3RUH about that "any dish 
larger than one that picks up the noise floor is wasted" comment from years 
ago, but in any system a little overkill is a good thing.  Planning for 
contingiencies is a good thing...

Fred W0FMS

>Supposedly, the "experts" say that a BBQ dish doesn't cut it.
>Well, it does.  I get the beacon very loud and can work stations down to 
>the
>noise floor.  Most stations are a couple dB above the noise floor but they
>are WAY more than 10 dB below the beacon.  I've never heard anyone calling
>CQ on top of the beacon.  It's so loud, I can't believe anyone with any 
>kind
>of S band antenna can't hear it.


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