I previously posted here about building a TinyGS earth station. It’s now been running for three weeks and I am happy with the results. I am seeing packets on a regular basis as satellites pass overhead and everything seems to be working OK! The antenna I am using is not ideal – a wideband discone which is of course a compromise antenna across a broad spectrum of RF but it seems to do the job for now:

I’m considering some further experiments – building a dedicated 430MHz antenna and re-locating the setup to sit on top of the mast I use for my Meshtastic infrastructure. This is a little delayed, updating the infrastructure on top of the mast is a big job requiring ladders, spanners, good weather and a healthy dose of free time. At the moment my LH-O node is suffering I think from a damaged filter which needs to be replaced. New filters were ordered from China – when they arrived they had the wrong connectors – RP-SMA rather than SMA. More filters were ordered. When they arrived I tested them with a VNA and saw no attenuation on any frequency between 1MHz and 1GHz so I suspect these are fakes or otherwise faulty. The new plan is to take apart the fake filters and use the connectors on the hopefully good filters with the wrong connectors…. watch this space!