Repurpose old satellite dish?

[KO6MOH]

I've found myself in possession of 2 old satellite dishes and, being relatively new to ham radio, don't know what to do with them. I'm wondering if they could be repurposed into directional antennas for something like EME or satellite communications, or if they should be honorably decommissioned and thrown away.

 

[AK9R]

Are they small DBS dishes (e.g. DirecTV, Dish Network) or large "big, ugly dishes"?

If small dishes, there are plans for turning them into 2m amateur radio antennas. https://w6nbc.com/articles/20xx-dishslot.pdf

 

[KO6MOH]

Are they small DBS dishes (e.g. DirecTV, Dish Network) or large "big, ugly dishes"?

If small dishes, there are plans for turning them into 2m amateur radio antennas. https://w6nbc.com/articles/20xx-dishslot.pdf

I'm pretty sure they are the small dishes, I'll have to check if they are direct broadcast. Thanks for the reply

 

[wtp]

big or small, if there is snow on the ground........

 

[vagrant]

The J-mount for those antennas should not be thrown away.

 

[merlin]

The Dish network super dish has the same aperature as a .9 meter dish. A little fabricating, patch antennas, Helix, PC Dipoles mounted at the focal point do very well fo all sorts of comms from 1.2 GHz to 25 GHz
I have a Winegard 1.2 meter dish (old Muzak dish) that only does a little better.

 

[prcguy]

The Dish network super dish has the same aperature as a .9 meter dish. A little fabricating, patch antennas, Helix, PC Dipoles mounted at the focal point do very well fo all sorts of comms from 1.2 GHz to 25 GHz
I have a Winegard 1.2 meter dish (old Muzak dish) that only does a little better.

The Dish dish and the Winegard is rated to about 12-13GHz, the surface accuracy is not good enough for 25GHz or for transmitting to a satellite for that matter.

 

[Golay]

I've found myself in possession of 2 old satellite dishes and, being relatively new to ham radio, don't know what to do with them. I'm wondering if they could be repurposed into directional antennas for something like EME or satellite communications, or if they should be honorably decommissioned and thrown away.

The link that AK9R gave you does work.
Got two hams I know using them in an HOA/Nagging Old Lady setup.
(I honestly don't know which scenario caused one of them to go that route).
Both work great but they don't seem directional.