Hello,
I got my Mini-Circuit order today and wired up the ZX60-P103LN+ LNA to 5
volts. I hooked it up to the discone and fed it into the R8600. I can
now see the noise floor of the transponders! The amplitude scale on the
R8600 is fixed at 10 dB so it is not a tall plateau. I can see the
smal
Hello,
The problem could be an old discone with old 60 foot long feedline. I am
happy that I can at least get something.
I have been reading up on the antennas and noticed the X-Wing type is
what I know as a turnstile antenna. I built a 2-Meter one for Mode A in
the 1980s. I may build one fr
Hi Eric,
That's a bit less signal than I'd expect if you have a line-of-sight to the
satellites and a low local noise floor in that band (the likely culprit). OTOH,
if you're getting any signal at all with a discone, you should be in great
shape with a proper satcom antenna.
I've managed to se
Here's some suitable right-hand circular polarization military satcom
antennas on eBay that can be used to receive downlinks in North
America between 243 and 270 MHz.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xtrivec+satcom+antenna.TRS0&_nkw=trivec+satcom
Matt Blaze's web page about this says:
"an outdoor antenna with a radiation pattern favoring the satellite
is virtually mandatory. A specially-designed circularly polarized
directional antenna (such as are used by the military) is ideal but
not essential. I have not found receiver preamplifier
Hello,
I thought I would give listening to the UHF Milsat listening a shot with
the R8600 and old discone. I had to turn on the preamp in the R8600, but
I was able to hear the Brazilian pirates on 255.550 MHz FM. The signals
are not quite full-quieting with some not that strong. The signals ar
