[amsat-bb] m2 eggbeater

[Bob]

You will do just fine with eggbeater antennas for LEOs.  You won't get
horizon-to-horizon coverage as these are not gain antennas, and they shift
to horizontal polarization on the horizon, so are subject to more fading on
the horizon.  But you will get at least six minutes of a 10 minute pass,
and possibly more.  If that is adequate depends on your operating criteria:
 If you want to work all states and get every minute of possible QSO time,
you are going to need a pretty fancy steerable antenna array that will set
you back 5x the amount of money that the omni antennas will cost.

Putting the eggbeater up at height on a tower will probably buy you nothing
but feedline loss unless you need it that high to have a reasonable clear
horizon.  I mounted mine a couple of feet above the peak of the roof.

Depending on your coax length, putting a mast mounted preamp on them might
be useful.  With 60 feet of feedline I'd personally install mast mounted
preamps, but you might have to turn the gain down a bit.

I installed M2 eggbeaters in 1998.  Been working flawlessly for almost two
decades and they have survived several hurricanes and New England Winters.

It really comes down to how much complexity you want, how much expense, and
how much service time you want to expend vs your operating criteria. I
seriously doubt a full set of CP beams and rotor would still be working
after 20 years in my environment.

73, Bob, WB4SON