[amsat-bb] Re: Egg Beater

[Jim Jerzycke]

Bruce is right about the preamp! When I started I wasn't using a preamp, and wondered why, with good antennas and low-loss feedline, I just couldn't hear things as well as I expected. After buying my preamps, it was a totally different experience!
You MUST have enough receive gain to hear the birds or you're just spinning your wheels!
I've since helped several other newcomers who were skeptical of the need for a preamp until I took one of mine over to their shack, installed it, and powered it up. The look on people's face when they hear the difference it makes is amazing.
73, Jim  KQ6EA


--- On Sat, 4/11/09, Bruce Robertson <ve9qrp at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Bruce Robertson <ve9qrp at gmail.com>
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Egg Beater
> To: "Steve Bluemel" <stevebluemel at gmail.com>
> Cc: AMSAT-BB at amsat.org
> Date: Saturday, April 11, 2009, 11:54 AM
> Steve (and the list):
> 
> I can add another data-point for you, as I'm playing
> with minimal
> antennas while rebuilding my station. My latest toy is a
> simple
> three-wire groundplane for 70cm made of #10 electrical wire
> soldered
> directly to a male N-connector. This connector is plugged
> into one
> side of an all-weather switching low-noise preamp, and both
> are in the
> hay-loft of a barn, up about 12' from ground, but with
> wood, roofing
> and hay all around. The preamp is connected to the radio by
> 100' of
> LMR-400 coax.
> 
> This has been in place for only 24h or so, but I've
> listened to a 33
> deg. pass of FO-29 and some cubesats with quite decent
> success. The
> telemetry of FO-29 (100mw) was audible always; after about
> 15 deg. I
> could comfortably hear a SSB conversation on that bird.
> SO-50 was not
> quite as successful, but I have a TS-2000 so it's
> sometimes hard to
> get a bead on that bird.
> 
> Of course, without the preamp, nada, nothing.
> 
> Sometimes I worry that we purchase complex and expensive
> antennas with
> preamps and never fully explore the potential of preamps
> with very
> simple, and inexpensive, antennas. This isn't to say
> that I'm leaving
> this g/p as my only antenna, but it provides a simple,
> cheap and
> effective first step and helpful baseline from which to
> compare
> improvements.
> 
> I also think it might be a good way to get people into this
> branch of
> the ham hobby. And in  that spirit, about a year ago, I
> posted a video
> of a FT-817 receiving a cubesat beacon with a
> directly-attached 1/4w
> groundplane:
> 
> http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1251407580465862002
> 
> 73, Bruce
> VE9QRP
> 
> On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Alan P. Biddle
> <APBIDDLE at united.net> wrote:
> > Steve,
> >
> >>>Once i know i can hear, i will build the uplink
> >
> > Would that everybody else followed your wise approach!
>  ;)
> >
> > Alan
> > WA4SCA
> >
> 
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