Talk through a satellite with a telescoping antenna?!

[VO1ONE]

Yes, you've read that right. It's possible to work a satellite with a dual-band HT and a whip antenna! Enter the Anli AL-800 antenna. What you have here is a telescoping dual band antenna for your HT that provides 3.2dB of gain over isotropic on 2 meters, and 5.6dBi of gain on 70cm! For an omni on an HT, that's fantastic. You can use this thing for operating on repeaters where you were receiving at an S2 or 3 with the factory duck and expect to get full scale when you switch to this antenna. Great for fringe area operations, operating from hotel rooms, or put those FRS radios to shame with some excellent simplex coverage. But the real kicker is that its got enough gain to pick up ham satellites like AO-51 and AO-27, and get your signal into them as well!

So, how do they get so much gain into an HT antenna? Well, it's long. Really long, almost 3 feet long. Alright, so it's not something you're going to want to have on your HT ALL the time. You can collapse it and it will still work albeit with less gain BUT attached to the bottom on the BNC connector is a base that will allow you to take off the telescoping antenna and replace it with a much smaller rubber duck antenna, which is included with the AL-800. Even fully extended, this antenna is a whole lot less conspicuous than an Arrow handheld yagi if you plan on operating from an area with a lot of people around. Of course, you won't have the performance of an Arrow antenna, but this antenna is capable of working satellite passes as low as 5 to 10 degrees depending on the obstructions around you. So if you're looking for an antenna that will get you into working the FM sats that won't break the bank, that you don't have to build and that's handy enough to use at times other than satellite passes, then the Anli AL-800 may be the antenna for you!

http://www.anli.com/Webpage/wP18.html

Available at any ham radio retailer such as Ham Radio Outlet for $34.95 (search for "AL-800") or Amateur Electronic Supply for $29.95 (search for "AL800")

 

[cybertrip]

how well does it perform... i can't see a whip performing that well for amsat. I would rather use a hand held yagi.

 

[VO1ONE]

how well does it perform... i can't see a whip performing that well for amsat. I would rather use a hand held yagi.

Well, you're right in that it definitely doesn't outperform a handheld yagi, but if you are looking for something that is a lot smaller, more compact, easy to take with you places and something that's a lot less inconspicuous than the AL-800 may be of interest to you.

I have spoken to Allen N5AFV in Houston, TX many times on the birds from here while he was using the AL800 antenna. He comes through the satellite clear, and he can always copy my transmissions. He also takes his HT and this antenna on cruise ships with him and many people have gained at least three or four new DXCC entities via satellite thanks to him, myself included. Here's what Allen has to say about the AL-800 (from his website http://www.qsl.net/n5afv )

HT and AL800 Antenna – An Excellent Portable Satellite Station

I do a great deal of operating on the FM LEO satellites with my Icom W32A HT and a Premier (Pryme) AL800 antenna. As of February 2006, I have made over 5600 satellite contacts using that equipment. The AL800 does not receive as well as an Arrow, but it is far more portable and does not attract unwanted attention. I wrote an article for the AMSAT Journal that describes how I use the AL800 antenna and the success I have had using it.

http://www.qsl.net/n5afv/AL800.html

Yesterday, I spoke to Amir K9CHP from Syracuse on AO-27 and he was using an AL-800 as well. He picked one up to take with him on a trip to Italy because it was much easier to transport than the Arrow. The Arrow is a great antenna; don't get me wrong. I take mine on top of hills and work the satellites right down to the horizon for the best DX from California (K6YK - 3,619 miles) to Estonia (ES1RF - 3,100 miles) but if I wanted something small, cheap and quick that'd be also handy to have just for working the repeaters around from a hotel room then the AL-800 would be my first choice.

 

[cybertrip]

looks like i'll have to look in to this antenna and a yagi so i can work the amsats. I have a Yaesu VX-5R that I got for my bday and I've been wanting to give it a go on some sats.

 

[VO1ONE]

looks like i'll have to look in to this antenna and a yagi so i can work the amsats. I have a Yaesu VX-5R that I got for my bday and I've been wanting to give it a go on some sats.

They're certainly a lot of fun. It's definitely what gets the most use out of my HT's. I use a VX-7R and a Radio Shack HTX-202 (monoband 2m HT for the uplink). Using two HT's like this allows for full duplex operation, so I can make fine adjustments to the antenna to make sure my uplink is getting in good. If you use only one HT, when you use a yagi, like the Arrow handheld or the XE1MEX homebrews that I had posted about before, you need to use a duplexer which from Arrow costs $59-$64 by itself. Still, the VX-5R will not receive while it is transmitting so it's no good for full duplex. The AL-800 doesn't require a duplexer to use, but for your radio, you'll need an SMA to BNC adapter to use it with your VX-5R. I'd suggest getting one with a rubber support, or homebrewing a rubber support for an off the shelf adapter as the antenna is a little heavy and puts stress on the connector. The rubber support helps keep your antenna from busting the SMA connector off or from creating a cold solder joint. Here's a guy who sells them with the support http://www.wa3hrl.com/smabnc/