ml wrote:
Someone asked if i was referring to amateur sat's, yes i was referring
to the amateur sats exclusivly

my question remains, so if i must loose one compass direction what
should it be?

thanks

In the limited amateur satellite action I've had I've needed all four
compass directions but early on got away with only having an azimuth
rotator, fixing elevation at about 50 degrees above the horizon. I
didn't get the low el passes well or at all until I had an elevation
rotor but it worked quite well most other times.

If you're thinking you'd only use an elevation rotor so you could track
horizon to horizon I'd set it up on a north-south line, not only for the
polar orbit sats but also it probably wouldn't be so bad for the others.
If you're using yagis I'd put the elements perpendicular to the
direction of tracking, parallel to the axis of rotation due to the
beamwidth of a yagi in that direction.

Personally I'd start with azimuth only if I couldn't do both axis
simultaneously.

Good luck,
Galen, W8LNA