[amsat-bb] Re: Re eggbeater performance - mobile

[Bob Bruninga]

> For mobile work on AO27, SO50, AO51 
> a 2 metre quarter wave whip is all 
> you need... to work the LEO's mobile
> and the satellite is 15 degrees or 
> more above the horizon,

Absolutely, For a 19.5" whip in center of roof:

1) Has 5 dBi gain above 20 deg on 2m
2) Has 7+ dBi gain above 30 deg on 70cm
3) Is an omni
4) does not sacrifice 3 dB for circular
5) Above 25 deg, satellite is 6 to 10 dB closer!
6) works the birds solid for the center of high passes
7) Simplicity at its best!

Read about it: www.aprs.org/rotator1.html

Disadvantage:  The only disadvantage is TIME.  On the above web page you can also see that satellites spend 70% of their daily pass times below 25 degrees.  BUT!  For those best passes in the morning and the evening (or whenever) you can make solid contacts while mobile for about 5 minutes.

Also note, that you do NOT need any tracking program to predict passes.  AO51 schdule repeats evry 5 days for example.  Just write down the CENTER pass of the morning and evening for each day for 5 days.  Update those 10 times on a small 3/5" card on the dash about once a month or so will predict all passes whenever you are mobile.  There will be a pass 100 minutes earlier and 100 minutes later each day too.  So you can predict all 6 passes a day from those same 10 times.

See how: www.aprs.org/MobileLEOtracking.html
 
Bob, WB4APR