Using an Old Satellite Dish as a WLAN Antenna

=m8s=Dark Underlord writes "I was browsing for wireless stuff and came across this link that shows how to use an old satellite dish as an 802.11 antenna." The directions tout the range as being 10 miles given line of sight. We've had other stories about building antennas, but I think these are cooler because of their focused nature, but a Primestar dish is a little tougher to locate than a Pringles can or a floppy disk.

Comments

Big Dish...

[nitrocloud]

My grandparents have a satelite dish that's about 10 feet in diameter... so should that give access to about 30 miles away? (I know it wouldn't, but it'd be neat to crank the amps)

12 Miles at 5Ghz with Primestar Dish

[ArkiMage]

Where I work our internet connection is via a WISP that uses this "technology". We have a Primestar dish on an elevated pole aimed at a mountaintop 12 miles away. 5Ghz and also a backup 802.11b radio with Yagi antenna that needs an amplifier to go that distance, but does so fairly well. The less-informed employees think the "dish" points to a satellite, not noticing the odd angle it's mounted at :)

http://www.planetc.com/ is the ISP

Re:12 Miles at 5Ghz with Primestar Dish

[MemoryAid]

As I recall, most of the satellite dishes these days have an offset feed, so it is not obvious which way they are pointing. In fact, they usually point a little higher than it appears. That is, a vector normal to the center of the dish points lower than the main lobe of the antenna pattern.

During a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska last year, it struck me as odd (well, odd looking) that the satellite dishes were pointing at the horizon. The offset-feed dishes looked like they were pointing at the dirt.

If you want it to appear that your dish is pointing to a satellite, you could mount it with the feed horn on top, giving the appearance of a skyward view.