This is something I once started and haven't finished yet... Go to m2inc.com. Download the assembly manual for the 436CP16 and the 2MCPA. These are nice antennas, but I don't have a $600 antenna budget. The manual gives you all the dimensions. I picked up a few TV antennas from the curb around the neighborhood. The elements are much thicker than the M2 elements, but that's OK. The old TV antennas yielded a usable boom for the 436MHz array. I drilled out the rivets to remove the existing elements. I drilled holes slightly larger than the harvested elements in the boom per M2 dimensions (you might want to used a drill press here). I have cut all the elements per M2 dimensions (get a cheap digital caliper) and plan to put a piece of heat shrink on the center of the elements and then epoxy them in place on the boom. I haven't quite figured out yet how I will do the driven elements yet, but it will be close to M2's method except possibly a plastic project box at the feed points. if you get this far, you will have to do some calculating to make a phasing harness with some 75-ohm coax. The two feed points are physically 90 degrees apart so nothing fancy there - just an easy way to get circular polarization. I plan to do about the same for the 2-meter antenna, but I need to "harvest" some more TV antennas. Once upon a time, nice diameter aluminum welding rods were available at the hardware store and were 36 inches long. 36 inches is not quite enough for the low end of 2 meters, but maybe two could be spliced together. The TV antenna plastic element to boom mount might also be recycled and a jumper put across to join the two halves of the element.
Of course with this satellite array, you would need an az/el rotator and tracking program, and that's another story, but you don't need to spend $1000 on that either. Good luck! 73 Neal N5EN
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