[amsat-bb] Fixed elevation - how many elements?

[Martin Cooper]

I'm contemplating building a couple of yagis, possibly even crossed
ones, and putting them up at fixed elevation (i.e. az-only rotator).
What I'm unclear about is how many elements to consider.

My location is really pretty dreadful for seeing sky. There's a big
hill to the NE that restricts me to above 40 degrees in that
direction. I'm in a single-storey house, with neighbouring two-storey
houses to the NW, SW, and S. In between all that, there are other
single-storey houses, and trees in most of the gaps between houses. I
can't afford to put up a tower (and it could never get above the hill
anyway), so I'm looking at not too much above my roofline.

To at least get through the trees, I'd think more elements would be
better. But more elements narrows the beam, and at fixed elevation,
that, at some point, will restrict even further how much of the sky I
can play with.

I'm looking for thoughts on how many elements would be recommended,
and how many would be too many, for a fixed elevation, both for VHF
and UHF. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to get on the linears, so not
limited to the FM sats. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Martin.
KD6YAM