Good stuff, I may try making one soon. On a parasitic element side note: putting my open hand at the right distance (about 3 inches) behind the patch antenna (from the kit) doubles my signal. Indoors from a 3/4 to 6/7. Not sure if just blocking noise with my water filled meat hand or becoming a element in a Yagi? Now if I could just hold that pose day and night…
Or build a permanent water-filled meat hand type element from a latex glove filled with wet sawdust 
You could hire someone to stand there…
Thry putting a pair of magic pliers there… we know that works 
You can spread your fingers and increase the number of reflector elements. 
Thanks for the great instructions. I built one today and it worked right away (RSSI -112.59 dBm / SNR 7.25 dB). I did a simplification: instead of a copper stripe, I stripped the plastic and shield from the coax and taped the insulated center lead onto the paper. I used an LMR 100A coax extension cable with SMA connector on one end.
Cool!
Update - Was fooling around with this cardboard patch yesterday, looking at Fleetnet and Safetynet on 54W, hooked to the RSP1. I took off the top layer of cardboard with the foil director and flipped it over so that the direct was sitting directly on top of the patch dipole. Signal strength doubled. Made absolutely no sense, so I put a slip of paper in between to keep the director and driven element electrically apart and taped it all back up. Now I have a cardboard patch that produces a usable signal for Inmarsat INDOORS. It’s about 3/4 the performance of the big wire, foil and cardboard helix in the same position, according to the signal quality using inmarsatdecoder. AND, bonus, it doesn’t have to be pointed directly at the satellite.
I’m pretty sure this is my favorite thread.
Wasn’t there a post that showcased a cardboard patch?

