discone for digital satellites?

Here’s what I want to do: For a given group of amsats, contact each one automatically every time there is a good pass (above 45°, say). I built a hand-operated yagi that seemed to work pretty OK, but while I’m capable I’m not too excited about building an az/el tracker.

Here’s my altnerative thought: Discone. The gain pattern is toroidal, so I should get gain exactly where I need it–towards the horizon. Then when the sat is at high-elevation, I might not even need the antenna (or not the full gain? or maybe a secondary, also-stationary antenna?). That’ll give me maybe 5 minutes to do the data transfer.

Is this a do-able thing? I’m not trying to contact any tricky or low-power sats, unless those are my only choices. I just want to be able to send/receive digital data at a timely rate (a few times a day).

submitted by /u/end112016
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