[amsat-bb] Thanks for KLM help

["Freeman P. Pascal IV" <pascal@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I must say thank you to those who recently helped by sending manuals and
comments in response to my queries on the KLM antennas. 

Yesterday I replaced both my homebrew 2m and 70cm cross yagis with the
KLM 2M-14C and 435-18C.  It was a wonderful way to spend a beautiful
sunny Saturday.

The difference in receive signal is significant.  Being able to switch
the 435-18C polarity on the fly has made a huge difference with GO-32
and AO-51.  I went from marginal passes on GO-32 and not being able to
decode AO-51 at all, to solid copy on both birds.  On AO-7 and FO-29
I've gone from losing signals in the noise to pulling them right out. 
SO-50 and AO-27 are now a solid copy on my TS-790, where as before I
thought the TS-790 was broken.

One hint I'd like to put forth on the polarity switching relays.  on
both antennas the housing for the relays had started to dry rot.  I
discovered that the 1 inch cube game pieces from my kids "thin ice" game
fit perfectly over the relay as a replacement housing.  Add a bead of
silicon along the base and it's sealed from the weather.

No - I didn't steal the pieces from my kids game.  It was missing many
game pieces so it was destined for the trash anyway <grin>.


-Freeman, N5FPP
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