How are ham satellites oriented?

[AgentCOPP1]

I was just thinking the other day about how they would orient the antennas of ham satellites. I thought for a while that the antenna was oriented perpendicularly but then I realized that if you had a pass near 90 degrees maximum altitude that you would lose the satellite for a while. So wouldn't they have to orient the satellite so that the antenna is parallel to the earth? I'm sure someone would have to know about this stuff.

 

[n5ims]

Most use a circularly polarized antenna to compensate for any phase shift due to the various effects from the orbits and high speed that they travel at. This link (Build A HELIX antenna | AMSAT-UK) shows you how to build one for your station (there are others on the web, but since this was from one of the global AMSAT organizations I used that link).

As far as aiming the antenna, you can often have good results using a simple HT and its Omni-directional antenna. At the high end, a computer controlled antenna with both dual rotors to control both azimuth and elevation.

Someplace to start learning is here How to work a FM satellite | AMSAT-UK and here Documents for New Satellite Users | AMSAT-UK

Good luck and have fun!