Foundations Of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio The first time I came across the concept of antenna polarisation was a decade before I became a radio amateur. To connect to the internet while driving around Australia I became the proud owner of a portable satellite dish. Portable in the broadest sense of the word, 150 kilos with a dish that's 2.4m high, 1.8m wide, steel base, electronics, power and patience to erect and point. The dish has a receiver and transmitter component that needs to be aligned, just so, in order to be able to have two-way communications using 5 Watts into geosynchronous orbit. The transmit and the receive are exactly 90 degrees offset from each other. One is called horizontal polarisation, the other vertical. The first thing to observe is that if you're using the wrong polarisation, it doesn't really work well. We'll get into what is right in a moment. Depending on where you you ask, the definition of not working well can be as bad as 40 dB loss. Just let that sink in for a moment. If you want to pu