Satellite Dish Array

[2blackdogs]

Ive spent the past 6 weeks reading, and absorbing information and ideas, and I am just amazed at what can be accomplished. Hopefully, this hasn't been discussed in the past, but I couldn't find a reference to it.

Before I even begin to try to buy or build any equipment, would it be possible to start collecting used small dishes, and create a multiple array to collect radio signals? Maybe I watch too many movies, but I've got some spare time.

Are these 18" dishes too small? I live about 15 miles south of Helena, Montana, on a WSW facing slope, where the shouldn't be any signal interference from the city, and the nearest in that direction is Butte, which is 45 miles over and beneath the Continental Divide.

If it is possible, I know I could easily build a targeting frame, but what sort of receiver should be placed on the dish?

Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and be abducted one of these days, so long as they don't use probes anymore. Thanks to everyone for either boosting, or crushing my fantasies.

 

[Al42]

What kind of radio signals are you trying to collect? The dishes are designed for a much higher frequency than any scanner can receive.

 

[RyltnVFD]

Sounds like he plans on using some dishes and maybe a C-Band reciever to point around and see/hear what he can see/hear.

 

[2blackdogs]

Let's just say that I'm in love with Jodie Foster. Seriously, it's something that would keep me occupied for a while.

Would it really make a difference what kind of dish, even if I had the right receiver equip.?

 

[brandon]

18" pizza pan dish is too small. You will need at least a 30" dish to pick up Ku-band signals and at least a 6' dish for C-band (8 or 10' recommended)...

I assume your looking to receive news feeds? There is lots of good stuff up there. It's a great hobby to go along with scanning since you can see raw footage and behind the scenes stuff with the media. I'm in SoCal and watching Hurricane coverage on the local ABC affiliate in Texas.

 

[N_Jay]

Well until he says what band his is looking to receive, the rest of the guesses are meaningless.

 

[2blackdogs]

Really, Im just looking for a project. I only wanted to know if it was a bogus idea before I began to read any more into it.

 

[N_Jay]

Really, Im just looking for a project. I only wanted to know if it was a bogus idea before I began to read any more into it.

Well if you want to receive a band that the antenna and the feed are designed fro then you you can build a phased array.

You need to get all the antennas on the same plane, then you need to combine the signals from the feeds. The combining system must take into account any phase/time delay. This is easy if it is a direct feed, but is probably difficult to impossible with a down-converting feed like most home sat receivers.

It seems you want to put a lot of time into doing something rather than putting a little time into learning about what you want to do? :roll: :roll:

If you want a fun project, get a microphone and use the dish to make a super-ear!.

 

[BadRambo]

Ive spent the past 6 weeks reading, and absorbing information and ideas, and I am just amazed at what can be accomplished. Hopefully, this hasn't been discussed in the past, but I couldn't find a reference to it.

Before I even begin to try to buy or build any equipment, would it be possible to start collecting used small dishes, and create a multiple array to collect radio signals? Maybe I watch too many movies, but I've got some spare time.

Are these 18" dishes too small? I live about 15 miles south of Helena, Montana, on a WSW facing slope, where the shouldn't be any signal interference from the city, and the nearest in that direction is Butte, which is 45 miles over and beneath the Continental Divide.

If it is possible, I know I could easily build a targeting frame, but what sort of receiver should be placed on the dish?

Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and be abducted one of these days, so long as they don't use probes anymore. Thanks to everyone for either boosting, or crushing my fantasies.

If you are really interested in the possibility of extraterrestrial signals, check out the main group that works in that area...

www.seti.org

If you are just looking for something that is fun and time consuming, read all about it ---

Have Fun!!!

 

[Al42]

If you are really interested in the possibility of extraterrestrial signals, check out the main group that works in that area...

www.seti.org

I was on their site recently, but couldn't find any of the old "build-it-yourself" pages. It looks as if they've gone professional, as far as the listening end is concerned. Or did I miss something?

 

[ReceiverBeaver]

The quick reference general rule for dish reflectors is that the dish needs to be at least 9 times bigger than 1/4 wavelenght of the operating frequency. At least this is true for transmitting. You can always use an even larger dish than what you need, with 9 times bigger being the minimum.

I know a fella in western North Carolina on a mountain top who took one of those older style huge satellite TV dishes.....what is that?...a "C" Band ?, which is about 9 feet wide, and mounted a 1/4 wave verticle radiator cut for the ham radio VHF 2 meter band ( 144-148mhz), inside the dish and 1/4 wavelength from the dish (inside offset). 1/4 wave of the ham 2 meter area is about 19 & 1/2 inches, which is about 1 foot. So the dish (rear reflector) was a little bit over 9 times the wavelength of the operating frequency. And the thing worked well for the guy and I spoke with him many times on it over several years. He bragged on his effort and results quite a bit as I remember.

I also read in a technical manual somewhere about a dish (rear reflector) needing to be at least 9 times larger than the operating freq. But this was a long time ago and I have no idea where I saw that. Might be the ARRL Antenna Handbook or something like that.

Again this "formula" applies to transmitting. Receiving-only abilities are usually much more forgiving and flexible. Tastes like chicken.