The commercially available fractal antennas–and cellphone chip antennas–are linearly polarized. Using such an antenna with a circularly polarized signal would result in a 3dB hit to SNR.
The cellphone antennas and Iridium antennas are are small as they are because signal strength is much higher than what we have. Sometimes I see -54dBm on on my phone.
Maybe so Syed - - but a 3 dB hit on an omnidirectional antenna with maybe a stronger signal than the Patch can deliver, might be a good trade off.
Can someone try it? Ken
What was the outcome of this test? I found this thread using a search I did before trying to connect a
standard GPS magnetic antenna to see if that happens to work, as I considered the GPS antenna
might have just enough gain and a good enough LNA to receive the satellite here.
(this will of course depend on the elevation and the vertical pattern of the antenna)
Another wild idea: maybe it would be possible to use a form of modulation like 2-phase 2-level
QAM in such a way that omni receivers use only the BPSK and receivers with more SNR can use
the AM part to get a 2nd bitstream and thus more data? No idea if that is even possible…
I already ordered copper tape for antenna!
Yes, it is technically possible to do this type of overlay. And it is definitely on The List. But no ETA just yet. @Abhishek
I also think lower bitrate with higher signal strength would be best. It would be good to remove the weather package from the carousel before the change.
Also as a feature request could something be added to the status.outernet.is page that shows all of the current files in the carousel and their priority? This would allow people testing (like the majority on here I think) to report if a file isn’t received or if it ends up as a zero byte file. May help with refining the transfer protocol.
Just tossing this in the mix. Reduce bandwidth, but put up two streams “side by side” at the reduced bandwidth. Think multiplexing. Can the hardware/software handle decoding both?
Pointing is SO basic and broad that I’d see greater utility in maintaining the bit rate to keep the repetition of Key material in th carousel higher. Point once and do not disturb and they never have to repeat.
RadioRay …_ ._
But what about the previous points made by others about mobile OuterNet receivers? I was recently on a cruise and would have been very happy if the ship had an OuterNet receiver or if I could have brought my own along. However with a weak signal that requires aiming an antenna it would have been extremely difficult to maintain a lock since we had ruff seas the entire 7 day trip.
But is serving an audience like the yachting/cruising community a primary goal of Outernet? I was under the impression it is more oriented towards providing basic news and educational information to more rural village-like targets who have limited access to the “outside world”. Being useful to more developed society is a nice fringe benefit, but is it primary? Slowing down the data rate reduces the amount of information that can be transferred.
As far as pointing goes, I agree with @RadioRay that pointing seems fundamental. I wonder if users can’t aim the patch antenna in the general direction based on printed local language instructions would they be able to set up the computer network to serve a village.
Disclaimer: Take my opinion for what it is worth; I am a newbie to the Outernet. My kit is “in the mail” and should be here early next week so all I know is what I have read here on the forum.
Wally
I totally agree about why we need to focus on those in remote areas who do not have other options for weather, news and most importantly ; educational and health information from the rest of the world.
I was a cruising sailor and know first hand that - as cool as Outernet Would have been - sailors have many sources for such information // WINLINKWINMOR/SAILMAIL/NAXTEX/HIGH SEAS METEO in voice , RTTY/FEC and WEFAX // As I see it, for we in developed nations ; Outernet is an interesting hobby project and we can contribute to this rapid development process. However, the prime service is to those who cannot participate in this forum or shop on-line, because they have no “on-line”. The end users being remote schools and villages, I’d prefer to focus on helping them.
As for pointing; sun rise/set, or Polaris or Southern Cross makes the north-south line close enough add a child’s plastic compass and a protractor made of paper or printed into the (eventual) Outernet case and it would be amazingly easy to set up then tune for maximum signal.
Most city dwellers rely on a cell phone to determine directions. However, outside of cities, most people grow-up knowing where the sun rises and sets 
If setting up Outernet in a totally unknown area for the first time, the four cardinal directions can easily be determined using a shadow from fence post or even a stick in the ground and a mark in the dirt while taking lunch / re: "Shadow tip method "/ or for those who own a watch , an analog wrist watch on a sunny day, instantly yields a very accurate north-south line - BT&DT. A child’s plastic compass makes even this unnecessary.
What we in Developed areas enjoy here on the forum is a very cool project that yields yet another source of information. However, Outernet is more than both. What those who live outside of our ocean-of-information NEED is access to: weather, news, health, agricultural methods , up to date educational materials and etc. Let’s do this for those who have no reliable access to this type of information, as we assist Outernet Team in this rapid development phase.
Your thoughts - team ?
RadioRay …_ ._
Although I wear a lot of hats at our small company, my primary role is to ensure that the birds are fed. There is no question that the goal of Outernet is to provide useful and critical information to those that would otherwise not have it. However, in order for us to get to point Z from C, we have a bunch of other letters to hit. That’s why it is also important that we provide a useful information service for those we can reach right now (from the perspective of product distribution).
@Syed -
Ah! No birdseed = no birds 
Gotcha. I’m probably too linear in my approach. You lead-on, and we will help where we are able.
RR
@OldGator I guess my example was a poor one. I was trying to make a point about the ability to pick up the signal from a boat. How about a fishing boat owned/operated by a single family that tries to make a living from deep sea fishing but can’t afford the expensive devices to get up to date weather? Of course educational material in rural areas is also important but that will still be delivered easier and more reliably with a stronger signal.
I think right now we have a pretty good mix of data:
[Skylark][root@skylark:/mnt/downloads]$ du -h . -d 1
0 ./preprocess
27.3M ./News
0 ./Requests
43.9M ./Wikipedia
8.0K ./Games
944.0K ./Amateur Radio
632.0K ./Community Content
0 ./grib2
34.9M ./Weather
156.0K ./opaks
436.0K ./Schedules
4.0M ./.cache
112.2M .
[Skylark][root@skylark:/mnt/downloads]$ uptime
18:38:46 up 17 days, 18:31, load average: 0.79, 0.80, 0.78
A bit over 17 days of receiving and I didn’t restore any files from backup or add anything. Actually I deleted some things (News with question marks). I think this is a pretty good mix for the target audiences.
I could be wrong, but I feel the people on this forum (including me hopefully) are contributing to the project to help refine it for eventual use by people that may have no idea what terms like “SDR” and “L Band” even mean. The goal is to make it easy for someone to simply take the unit out of the box and lay it down somewhere with a clear view of the sky. No aiming, no configuration, just one power button. A few hours later open an inexpensive laptop (Chromebook?) which boots and already knows about the OuterNet SSID so it connects to the CHIP’s WiFi signal and opens the browser to the default IP. So besides placing the device on the ground or on top of a building and opening a laptop up, the end user only had to press two power buttons to get the Skylark (or whatever it is called by then) interface in front of them. The rest is just clicking around to see information which could be enhanced by an on-screen tutorial like the first boot of an Android phone.
That is why I think a strong reliable signal is an excellent priority at this point. Given money and time that same strong signal can have its data rate increased as needed. For now, we are just testing, so who cares if it is half the speed for a while? We all know it can be turned up in speed and/or strength with just extra money thrown at Inmarsat. I think increasing the signal strength is the best use of the money already being spent. This will make reception more reliable during poor conditions or with smaller antennas in good conditions.
I yield the soap box to the next person 
I don’t like the idea of reducing the bit rate, just to make pointing the antenna easier, that is just lazy. The lantern will not be a turn key devise as there are too many variables. The lantern will need to be set up by someone local that understands what is needed to set up and maintain the lantern. When you think about it, the solar panel in the lantern has no hope of keeping the lantern running 24/7. You need a large panel that can cope with shade, seasonal changes in daylight length and weather. If the lantern is on the ground, it will need to be cleaned daily and protected from animals including humans. The original purpose of the outernet service as i understand it, is a library. If the data rate is lowered, something needs to be sacrificed, will outernet become a news and weather service or a library. How many ebooks can we upload now each day?
The possible problem here that the top (active) element of your patch antenna is reaching the windshield plastic(?), which is a dielectric material and de-tuning that. Next time try to keep a few inch distance from the windscreen, we have seen similar issues.
Thanks for your response, I’ll give it a try again with the better SDR (RTL-SDR blog).
You are not wrong.
i feel like keeping the higher bit-rate would be there better option due to the limited data that can be moved at this point and going lower would not allow some of the larger files to be transited in a reasonable period of time.