[amsat-bb] Antennas

[Stephen Brown Jr]

I've been reading up with great enthusiasm about the amateur payloads being
carried into space lately and I would definitely like to take advantage of
them. The biggest thing that has always kept me from doing anything with the
birds full time has been a decent antenna array. At the moment, my sat
station consists of a Kenwood TH-D7AG and an arrow handheld antenna. While
it works fine, and I have made close to a dozen contacts or so with it, it's
a little discouraging to be outside with it in the winter months.

I know this question probably gets asked many times, but what would be the
best antenna to work LEO birds like AO-51 and some of the cubesats coming
online here soon? Looking at some of the commercial antenna systems
available are a little out of my budget, and I absolutely suck at building
my own and don't really enjoy that aspect of the hobby anyhow. I'd also like
to do something without an AZ/EL rotor, as I can't fit that into particular
setup at this point in time.

So I guess in essence what would be the best "bang for the buck" for what I
am trying to accomplish here?

73's
Stephen
N1VLV