Any Use for an Old Direct TV Dish?

[Ishmole]

Got rid of my DirectTV account, but the small dish remains. Is there anything I can connect to this to hear or see anything? I have an old Uniden C/KU satellite receiver. Would I receive anything hooking that up to the dish?
Just wondering...

 

[thebaldgeek]

I took the DirectTV feed (LNB) out of mine and replaced it with a Nooelec v1 patch and moved the dish to pick up Inmarsat. With that tweak (and moving the coax to an RTLSDR v3 dongle and Jaero) I can get aircraft ACARS and ground audio calls to the aircraft along with STDC broadcasts.

 

[WeldGuy]

I've seen plans for reworking the dish for 2 meter use.

 

[wtp]

a slightly diffeent use and i have considered it...

 

[prcguy]

The small DirecTV dish LNBF tunes 12.2 to 12.7GHz and its circular polarized. Ku FTA stuff is 11.7 to 12.2GHz and linear pol, so the complete dish is only good for receiving DirecTV or some Dish Network stuff in the DBS band. The dish is also very small as DBS orbital slots are 9 deg apart where Ku can be just 2 degrees, so even with the correct LNBF its too small for FTA Ku.

The old dishes make ok 500 to 1,000yd targets when painted white or orange but they don't make any sound and don't move much when you hit um. There are some feed kits to work for WiFi and some microwave ham bands.

 

[Ishmole]

I took the DirectTV feed (LNB) out of mine and replaced it with a Nooelec v1 patch and moved the dish to pick up Inmarsat. With that tweak (and moving the coax to an RTLSDR v3 dongle and Jaero) I can get aircraft ACARS and ground audio calls to the aircraft along with STDC broadcasts.

Thanks! I am checking out getting a patch. Are the ACARS and audio calls hard to decode? Is there a website that has info?
Thanks again!

 

[vagrant]

Those mounts are nice and strong, especially if you use the arms. I use one with a mil air AT-197A/GR discone on an upper eave to clear my roofline, as it did not come with the angled mount. That antenna has some weight at a bit under 10 pounds.

The dish itself I put into the bin.

 

[prcguy]

Those mounts are nice and strong, especially if you use the arms. I use one with a mil air AT-197A/GR discone on an upper eave to clear my roofline, as it did not come with the angled mount. That antenna has some weight at a bit under 10 pounds.

The dish itself I put into the bin.

The outrigger arms on the DirecTV Slimline dish were designed by a guy I know and I really disliked the design. But they worked and millions have been sold. The J mount for that dish is incredibly strong when bolted into concrete and somewhere I have the mechanical stress analysis plots. The outrigger arms were designed mainly because you can't always bold the thing to concrete and its not so good when bolted to a rotted roof overhang.

If it seems like I know a few things about the dish its because my name is on 3 of its patents.

Edit: Just checked, more like a dozen patents.

 

[W8KIC]

a slightly diffeent use and i have considered it...
View attachment 138949

Target practice anyone? Lol!

 

[a417]

Target practice anyone? Lol!

As mentioned before, the mounts are great...the dishes do make mediocre bird baths.

 

[JimD56]

Save the J Mount Arm for a possible future Antenna. Like a 700-900 MHz mobile with a mast mounting kit or simple L bracket.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Thanks! I am checking out getting a patch. Are the ACARS and audio calls hard to decode? Is there a website that has info?
Thanks again!

JAERO

JAERO is a program that demodulates and decodes Classic Aero ACARS messages sent from satellites to Aeroplanes commonly used when Aeroplanes are beyond VHF range. Demodulation is performed using the soundcard. Such signals are typically around 1.5Ghz and can be received with a simple low gain...

jontio.zapto.org

 

[merlin]

I have a superdish that may get a patch feed for weather sats but my 1.2 meter Winegard on a pan and tilt
may get that along with a 4 mode LNB.

 

[merlin]

Save the J Mount Arm for a possible future Antenna. Like a 700-900 MHz mobile with a mast mounting kit or simple L bracket.

One mount kit holds my Ubiqity dish.

 

[prcguy]

Target practice anyone? Lol!

You mean like this?

 

[a417]

You mean like this?

View attachment 138993