I was loaned a Quadrifilar Helix Antenna (QFH) for NOAA weather satellite reception

Hi there, my good friend G0CQZ loaned me his QFH antenna to try out.
These types of antennas provide circular polarization in your radiating hemisphere and the radiation pattern is not really affected by a ground plane. This means it should work better than my home-brew V-dipoles - that's the theory anyway!
Thanks for watching and 73.

[@Kw1161]

Clint congratulates on your new antenna, your friend looks very good at home brewing. I priced the commercial ones and the least expensive was $400 and that was two years ago pre parts shortage.
73! Have a great day!

[@OxfordShortwaveLog]

Thanks my friend. Nigel is very practical - my antenna builds tend to fall apart after a few months! This saved my a few ££££3 for sure! 73!

[@TheWinstn60]

I built a QFH for weather sat reception some years ago its a good step up from a V Dipole. Then added a NOAA filter and preamp from NOOelec for weather sats another improvement. Now its fully automated get some great pics most days the key thing is set the IF bandwidth to about 17.5 khz. I use SDRuno and an RSP1A. The QFH antennas are great

[@OxfordShortwaveLog]

Thanks for sharing!

[@winstonchurchill6506]

Hope you get some good results from it.have a good easter break sir

[@OxfordShortwaveLog]

Thank you Sir - I hope you had a good Easter. 73

[@KandiKlover]

I just tune the Coast Guard HF station near me and it relays the GOES images over HF as part of the maritime wefax. Saves hassle.

[@OxfordShortwaveLog]

Nice. I like the challenge of decoding the NOAA satellites.

[@KandiKlover]

@@OxfordShortwaveLog more of a circlejerk than a challenge :3

[@rjy8960]

Clint - can I ask what signal strength change you see with your Antennajet in-line? You are the only person I'm aware of that has one. I'm using a Wellbrook and then use two downstream ports to a TS990 and RSPdx - I'm seeing about a 1-2S-point drop in signal strength on 40m - It seems to me to be a very expensive BNC Tee connector! It's being run from a dedicated 12V supply. Interested in your thoughts.

[@OxfordShortwaveLog]

Hi I've not noticed any drop in signal strength - it uses an ultra-low noise amplifier with an insertion loss of around 1.5 dB. It's a great bit of kit.

[@rjy8960]

@@OxfordShortwaveLog thanks - I’ll have a chat with Bonito.

[@rfcdgaf]

How much better reception db wise do you get from v dipole vs QFH.

[@OxfordShortwaveLog]

There's nothing in it on high elevation passes, but the QFH performs much better otherwise.