Re: [amsat-bb] Low cost az-els

["Eric Rawson" <ericrawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Beach, VE3STI, compared the cost of a Yaesu G5500 az-el with SatEL's
az-el...

>I just took a look at Gigaparts and the Yaesu G5500 is $625 and SatEL's rig
>is $418. I am not sure that the price of SatEL's product would sway me to
it
>rather than the Yaesu if I were about to buy.
>

This comparison is incomplete.  The Yaesu G5500 at $625 is the bare az-el
unit.  If you add to that the Yaesu GS-232A Computer Controller ($495) the
total is $1,120.  This Yaesu controller has no internal memory, and tracking
must be controlled in real-time by a dedicated computer.

The SatEL Az-El costs $418 and comes with a controller that has an internal
processor and memory that you can "set and forget" and use the computer for
something else.  The SatEL Az-El is being used with 3' diameter 25 dBi
dishes (www.n3iyr.com) for AO-40 2.4 GHz downlink.  The current SatEL model,
Model 5, tracks in 5 degree steps so its always with 2.5 degrees of the true
direction, good for N3IYR's 8.6 degree beamwidth.  SatEL's Model 5 also
tracks through north without having to sweep back around 360 degrees,
especially convenient for ARISS QSOs.

These factors should be considered in making a cost-performance comparison.

Eric Rawson, KN6KC

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