A few months ago I started looking at various options for omnidirectional antennas with circular polarization for satellite communications. I came across the TA-1 137 MHz turnstile antenna from Wimo, which looked like an interesting option for a reasonable price.
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DX-88 SWR on 2015.11.07
Today we got the first storm warning of this season and so I went out to secure the DX-88 with 4 guy-wires. At the same time I did a new tuning round because I have noticed that some of the bands have moved since the last adjustment. This time I have managed to get 30 meters working.
DX-88 resurrection
It has now been eight years since I have retired my Hy-Gain DX-88 antenna declaring it dead for good. I was standing with a broken base element for the second time and I decided not to spend any more time and money on it but try a new antenna, a Butternut HF2V covering 160, 80, 40 and 30 meters.
Butternut HF2V on 10 and 15 meters
Two recordings I made during the 2011 CQ WW CW contest showing how well the Butternut HF2V receives on the 21 and 28 MHz bands. The videos were recorded using the Funcube Dongle equipped with the HF converter kit and my GNU Radio based software defined radio receiver, GQRX.
Mast take-down and 7m dish maintenance
Sunday, April 10, 2011 we met at OZ7SAT to start working on our antennas. The weather is becoming better and we have a few plans for upgrading the antenna farm at AMSAT OZ headquarters.
Chasing cubesats with the Funcube Dongle and Arrow antenna
Inspired and impressed by the performance of the Funcube Dongle during my initial tests, I have decided to perform some more thorough tests using a minimalistic setup consisting of a laptop running Gpredict and Quisk SDR software, the Funcube Dongle and an Arrow II hand held satellite antenna.
Satellite receptions with the Funcube Dongle
This page collects various amateur radio satellite and cubesat receptions carried out using the Funcube Dongle. The Funcube Dongle is a small USB-flashdisk sized software defined radio receiver for 67 MHz – 1.7 GHz intended to be the ground receiver for the FUNcube satellite by AMSAT UK. It is well suited as a ground receiver … Read more
My HF2V during winter 2010/2011
I took a few photos of my Butternut HF2V vertical antenna during my winter holidays 2010/2011. You can click on the images to get higher resolution photos. Enjoy!
Preparing the 7m antenna for UNITEC-1
AMSAT OZ staff are preparing the 7 meter dish for tracking the UNITEC-1 interplanetary spacecraft. Related articles: UNITEC-1 Link Budget C-band Receiver Hardware for UNITEC-1 UNITEC-1 5.8 GHz Receiver Test Using OZ7IGY Smaller dish for tracking UNITEC-1 5.8 GHz Helical Feed for the 90cm dish UNITEC-1 Tracking Report
The Butternut HF2V antenna after three years
More than three years ago that I have mounted my Butternut HF2V multi-band vertical antenna outside and left it suffer from the windy and humid Danish climate. The settings and performance that I could achieve back then are documented in several blog posts, e.g.Tuning the Butternut HF2V.
What has happened with the Butternut HF2V since then? Well, nothing really… During these three years, the antenna has been standing and performing very well without any need for fixing or tuning it. I have done a visual inspection and tightened the guy ropes every now and then, but that’s all. In order to document it I have taken a few photos and made some SWR scans.