Cartan-decomposition subgroups of SO(2,n)

For G = SL(3,R) and G = SO(2,n), we give explicit, practical conditions that determine whether or not a closed, connected subgroup H of G has the property that there exists a compact subset C of G with CHC = G. To do this, we fix a Cartan decomposition G = KAK of G, and then carry out an approximate calculation of the intersection of KHK with A, for each closed, connected subgroup H of G.