Satellite Eggbeater Antennas - DIY vs. M2 Antennas

[@nickjh1968]

Fantastic, and after much deliberation and sourcing of parts I am presently building the 70cm version, biggest issue by far has been sourcing RG62 coax for the phasing loop, very tricky to track down.

[@w3tua]

Aftermarket car radio antennas use RG62 coax. I spent ten dollars and have plenty left over.

[@K1QS_Radio]

Wow! great discussion and explanation. I actually understood most of that. Thank you.

[@robertallen3133]

Fantastic video

[@alzeNL]

thank you very much for your very interesting video - I've ordered the M2 Antennas, mostly because I wouldnt have the time to source/build/maintain a home-brew antenna system, but I found your explanation of each antenna to be educational and useful in understanding how both operate - hope to hear your on the 'birds' - 73 2E0FWE

[@rjy8960]

Hi, I'm in the process of considering a couple of the M2 antennae. How are you getting on with them? Are you pleased with the results? 73 de M0SNR

[@davidlwhitesidearmy]

Great video

[@Gw0wvl]

Interesting video 👍

[@watchmanmichael2023]

Awesome Thanks

[@dannywhittle4245]

great video but can you supply a diagram for the balun you made from rg58? i have constructed 2 loops just not sure how that bit is wired from one loop to the other alkso the length. Thanks in advance...

[@RobertResearchRadios]

Please see page 7 of this document for the schematic for the phasing and matching harness: on6wg.pagesperso-orange.fr/Doc/Antenne%20Eggbeater-Engl-Part1-Full.pdf. I believe the diagram is for RHCP IIRC. On a related note, the task of balun, conversion from balance line/antenna to unbalanced transmission line (e.g. coax), was ignored in my implementation. The commercial version used ferrite toroids placed over the coax to attenuate the common mode current on the shield.

[@victoryfirst2878]

COuld you use this type of antenna for TV reception ??? Nice video with lots of information fella too.

[@RobertResearchRadios]

I've used both of these as TV antennas with SDR. They work ok, though I don't have a DVB-T decoder... :(

[@victoryfirst2878]

@@RobertResearchRadios Do you have any ideas for a stronger prooforming TV antenna ??? Look forward to hear your views Robert.

[@RobertResearchRadios]

I'd buy honestly anything that comes up in an amazon search for TV Antenna and assume it would perform better. This is not built for the TV band frequencies.

[@RobertResearchRadios]

Actually though if you email me at [e-mail] I have some I'd sell you. 2 of These for $30 + shipping www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XGPXFWY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. They are a lot; both must go.

[@victoryfirst2878]

@@RobertResearchRadios Thank you for letting me know Sir Robert.

[@k5ttt]

Nice video. You'll notice that the 2, in M2, is written in superscript. Rather than calling it M-Two antennas, the proper name is M-Squared antennas. Sorry, I cringed every time you said M-Two. :)

[@RobertResearchRadios]

You're right. Their logo says M^2, and although the company is registered as "M2 Antenna Systems Inc," they pronounce it M squared in their videos. I also say R "Three" as short for Robert Research Radios in Text and Speech :p You can say R cubed if you want.

[@HJ5RGG]

Thank you HJ5RGG

[@Alejandro-nz7mu]

Por favor se podrá la transición en español para poder aprender y copiar sus abilidades y experiencias

[@Ei2iP]

So overall recommendation? You don't have to rotate these?

[@RobertResearchRadios]

Correct. No rotator is required. I recommend them if you don't want to set up a rotator, but you will need more TX power than 5 watts to get into the birds on SSB or FM reliably. You will also be picking your poison in that you must choose a setup for low or high passes respectively with V2 vs. V1 loop design and reflector placement. I use the M2 antennas satpack with reflectors and an IC-9700. It works great for pretty much any LEO bird pass over 30 deg.

[@cliffbarrimore]

Any Suggestions for RG62 Coax, I can only find 1000' rolls of it, impossible to source here in NZ, ?

[@RobertResearchRadios]

You'd probably have to source some from overseas then, I bought mine on ebay in the states.

[@w3tua]

Aftermarket car radio antennas use RG62 coax. I spent ten dollars and have plenty left over.

[@techdude1541]

What did you use for the reflectors for the eggbeater V2?

[@RobertResearchRadios]

I used copper tubing like the stuff used in refrigerator water piping. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QKJ7FZL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[@VE8HL]

How did one compare to the other in performance??

[@RobertResearchRadios]

Opinion: Eggbeater V1 >> Eggbeater V2. The Eggbeater antennas from M2 (or normal style eggbeaters with reflectors) are a dream. For me, the eggbeater v2 style antennas have not worked well for NOAA weather satellite stuff on 137 MHZ. I never really tried them for narrow bandwidth satellite work in comparison to the normal style eggbeaters, but they seem like a meme to me. A CP yagi az-only rotator setup would be far better, and I'm hard pressed to say that one couldn't get similar results with just a high gain vertical. The only advantage would seem to be the CP at those elevations when compared to say just throwing an Elk 144/440 LPA on an az rotator. My reco is build or buy normal eggbeaters with the reflector and learn CW or use FT4 for linears if you really don't want to have rotators. If you want a quick and dirty rotator setup see the azimuth only Elk config. Otherwise, I'd shell out the bread for the az/el rotators with CP yagis :)

[@dannelson8556]

M2 are massively over priced and over hyped, its kind of like jewelry to hams who are more interested in appearance than function. You can build better functioning antennas for a fraction of the cost. but the you don't get the bragging rights of owning m2, at one time hams looked down at other hams who bought stuff like this rather than build it, they were know as "appliance operators" unfortunately with the rare exception of a hand full of hams appliance operator pretty much defines all hams now days

[@patraicemery]

will they receive on 2M okay?

[@RobertResearchRadios]

I use mine for local 2M repeaters as well. It's not a high gain (in azimuth) vertical, but they do ok.

[@ThaVoodoo1]

kirchhoff right hand rule

[@MykeyLoBraxton]

Word....

[@bradfordcouncilman3136]

FB OM

[@AdamosDad]

🖐🏻73's🎙🎧KD9OAM📻