[amsat-bb] Easy to make, low cost omni-directional antennae

[Graeme Nelson]

Hi all,

I'm wanting to make an antenna for "talking with the birds", mainly ISS and 
LEOs.  Thank you to Don ZL1THO and John KB2HSH for the suggestions and 
encouragement they have already e-mailed me.

I have done some more thinking since then and come up with the following list 
of criteria for the first antenna I make for satellite work:
* easy to make
* lost cost
* omni-directional
* good performance, especially for satellite work, without moving it
* portable enough that I can pack it into the van when I go on holiday and it 
won't take up much space (it needs to share the space with all the stuff for 
my wife and 3 children, as well as me).  It would also be nice to be able to 
store it in the corner of my office at work if I so desire.

When I started looking in earnest last Friday, a ham colleague of mine did a 
Google search an came across a turnstile antenna that looked promising 
(http://www.wb8erj.com/turnstile_antenna.htm).  That evening, I noticed the 
eggbeater on the web site of John KB2HSH (http://kb2hsh.blogspot.com/), which 
looks nice and easy to build.  I then did some searching and came upon the 
Eggbeater II by Jerry K5OE (http://members.aol.com/k5oejerry/eggbeater2.htm), 
arguably a better fixed antenna for satellite use than the original eggbeater. 
  A while later, I also found the EZ-Lindenblad by Tony AA2TX 
(http://www.arrl.org/qst/2007/08/monteiro.pdf).

I am currently leaning towards the EZ-Lindenblad (for 2m) and a parasitic 
Lindenblad (for 70cm ... when I get hold of the design; I intend to e-mail 
Tony about it if/when I go ahead with the EZ-Lindenblad).

How do these antennae compare performance-wise?  Am I leaning in the right 
direction (EZ-Lindenblad), or should I be looking at something else?  Your 
input would be much appreciated.

TTFN.,
Graeme
ZL2GDN