[amsat-bb] Antenna Thoughts / QSL'ing

[sraas@optonline.net]

As being new to the sats I am learning new stuff every minute. I have recently made my 1st contacts on AO-51/Oscar-50 on FM getting close to 10 qso's in all. My current antenna set up is a 1/4 wave verticle in my living room on 2m .. and I have been strong arming the 432 yagin to recieve the downlink. I do have 5 elememt 2m yagi for the uplink.. but im not using it at the moment.

In doing this I am finding that keeping the antenna  verticly polarized or 1/2 way inbetween vert and horz is providing me the best RX results.  I guess what Im tryin to figure out is before I mount these outdoors.. is this typicle? If so I will mount them 1/2 way between vert and horizontal polarization. 

Circ. polarized antennas are not an option for me right now.. but I will go that way eventually.

My 2nd subject is in reguards to qsl'ing... do most Sat users use some sort of electronic qsl ie. LOTW or e-qsl?  Or is the ole reliable snail mail qsl the most common?

-Steve Raas
N2JDQ
FN20vg