[amsat-bb] Tripod for Arrow

[Stephen E. Belter]

Chris,

Four suggestions on your tripod question, probably too much information:

1.  If you use a tripod, make sure the tripod head allows you to quickly and easily twist the antenna 180 degrees around its axis.  Twisting the antenna allows you to adjust the polarity of the antenna.  In many cases, having the polarity right is more important than having the direction exactly right.  And the tripod needs to be able to hold that twist until you move it.

2.  John, K8YSE, has adapted a speaker stand to hold his Arrow.  There is a nice picture of John and his speaker stand in recent copies of the Getting Started with Amateur Satellites book in Chapter 7, Operating SSB and CW Satellites.  (I'd attach the picture, but the BB doesn't pass attachments.)  John has incorporated a counterweight, friction clutch, and a copper pipe that fits in the handle of the Arrow.  I've used John's setup at the Orlando HamCation when John was giving demonstrations.  I was his rotor/controller and polarity adjuster, and it worked well.

3.  I built a nice portable setup with a surveyor's tripod, a Yaesu G-5500 Az/El rotor, dual Alaska Arrow antennas, switchable polarity, and preamps.  It looks great, but solution #4 (below) works better and takes much less time to setup and pack up.  It is also much less expensive.

4.  This is what works best for me, Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV):  Don't use a tripod.  Hold the Arrow in one hand, twisting your wrist to adjust for polarity and aiming in the general direction of the satellite.  If you find the antenna to be too heavy and uncomfortable, brace your elbow against your body instead of holding your arm out straight.  Adjust your pointing and twisting by listening to the received signal while you wave the antenna in a sweeping or circular motion towards the general direction of the bird.

If the antenna is still too heavy, some hams modify the Arrow to make it lighter.  Clayton, W5PFG has modified his Arrow by using a shorter boom (24-inches long, 2 elements on 2 m, 4 elements on 70 cm).  It has less gain, but is much lighter.  (See a picture of Clayton and his short Arrow in Getting Started.)  Mike, W8LID drills lots of holes along the length of his Arrow boom, removing lots of the aluminum and weight.  A number of pictures of Mike's antennas are on Twitter (@w8lid and @we4bravo), and a picture of the antenna will be included in the 2019 edition of Getting Started.

If your problem is running out of hands, use a recorder for logging, a headset to hold the microphone, and either a footswitch or handswitch for PTT.  Use one hand to aim the antenna (either on a tripod or not), and the second hand (maybe with PTT handswitch) to tune the radios.  This setup works well for a number of people, including me.  There are lots of pictures of operators using this setup in Getting Started.

73, Steve N9IP

P.S.  I'm back to finishing the revisions to the 2019 edition of Getting Started with Amateur Radio.  The remaining 2018 edition copies are on sale at the AMSAT store or you can get a PDF at the store too.  The 2019 edition will be released at the Dayton Hamvention.
--
Steve Belter, seb at wintek.com



On 4/24/19, 9:27 AM, "AMSAT-BB on behalf of Chris Pohlad-Thomas via AMSAT-BB" <amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org on behalf of amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

    Can anyone please provide a recommendation on a tripod to use with an Arrow
    II? I want to make sure I find something that can handle the weight and do
    a 90 degree turn.
    
    Chris
    KC1E
    
    -- 
    Chris Pohlad-Thomas
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