APT Portable Antenna

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chrismol1

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I'm looking for nice plans for a portable or something not huge that I can use for NOAA Weather APT, maybe on a tripod or something. Just wondering if anyone came across something like this.
 

chrismol1

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Automatic Picture Transmission via weather satellites in the 137Mhz band
 

N1BHH

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A turnstile antenna does just fine. I have sat outside with just my ham band walkie tuning the 137-138 range and heard plenty of signals on the OEM duck. You really don't need much. I have heard people mention using just a ground plane with good results.
http://www.wb8erj.com/turnstile_antenna.htm
http://www.west.net/~jay/turnstile.html
http://www.qslnet.de/member/pa1pj/turnstile.pdf

I used one for FM broadcast reception, that worked quite well. Try the above links and I'm sure you will have no problem with a turnstile.
 

jb872033

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just started monitioring the WX sattelittes and i am using a hustler DCL with little problems, im sure i could do better with a helical but am satisfied with a discone roof mounted...what are you using at the moment if anything?

JB
 

chrismol1

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jb872033 said:
just started monitioring the WX sattelittes and i am using a hustler DCL with little problems, im sure i could do better with a helical but am satisfied with a discone roof mounted...what are you using at the moment if anything?

JB
Nothing, I'm just really looking for plans to build a really nice heliax. I want to know more about the different types of helical antennas for this kind of monitoring.
 

N1BHH

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You really don't need much in the way of an antenna. The antennas I suggested in my previous post work, the QHA antenna suggested by another is also going to work. I like the initiative of building antennas, I do it when I can. Used to build ground planes for UHF and VHF out of ordinary hard drawn wire and SO-239's. As I mentioned previously, I have heard the satellites just by using the OEM duck on my walkie. A mag mount sitting on a metal shelf works, just about anything will work. It's always best to have as much capture area as possible, because doppler effect will cause signal losses when a null is rotated through. And one antenna placed out in the open with a clear sky view will do the trick.
 
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