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Fun To Be Had With a 10-Foot Satellite Dish?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the build-a-death-star dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I'm moving to a rural community in the central United States. On the property is a satellite dish in excess of 3 meters in diameter that seems to still be in excellent condition. I already enjoy shortwave radio and was wondering what interesting TV feeds I might be able to catch with the dish. What kind of equipment would I need and how much should I expect to spend? If it's not useful for that purpose, what other fun projects might I use it for?"

13 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. How I use my parabolic dish... by elewton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Get a biquad,2.4 GHz amplifier, and an AWUS 036h. Install Backtrack, set to monitor mode and start scanning your town!

  2. TV feeds to the TV companies by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You might be able to pick up the feeds to TV companies. I knew someone who did this years back but they might be encrypted now. They would sometimes pick up presenters chatting during advert breaks, people waiting to go on air, etc.

  3. Moon bounce by enigma32 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My boss at the last place I worked had a number of extremely large dishes that he used for moon bounce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EME_(communications)

    Interesting stuff. I don't know how active and interesting the conversations are (as I understand there are relatively few people that do this) but from a technical perspective I think it's interesting to bounce a signal off the moon and listen to the result...

    I've been told that his medium sized dish (approx 10' I suppose) worked best for this purpose...

    I'm no expert on this; have only run into it before at that job...

    1. Re:Moon bounce by dnahelicase · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Moon bounce is the pretty cool. I'm not an expert either, but I am a HAM and have spent quite a few nights outside with friends playing around with a large (handmade) dish. Sure, moon bounce isn't real popular, but there is something very satisfying about being able to bounce a signal off the moon onto some far reaching part of the earth.

      I don't have a powerful enough radio to do it very well, but we could still listen to other people quite well and every once in a while could make contact. Of course, we weren't using a nice manufactured dish like that, but had constructed one out of PVC pipe and wire mesh. I bet a real dish would do a lot better than what we constructed.

  4. Get a second... by stakovahflow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. Get a second satellite dish.
    2. Attach a bar between the two, facing each other like this: (-)
    3. Turn this setup onto its side.
    4. Then mount the base of one dish, horizontally, so that one is facing up to the other, which is facing down.
    5. Using a roll of 1-2' sheet metal (sheet aluminum works for me).
    6. Attach one end of the sheet metal to the ground with a pair of small metal tent stakes.
    7. Attach the other side of this to the dish that is facing up.
    8. Spray paint the dishes & landing ramp the colour of your choice, if desired.
    9. Presto!

    When complete, you will have yourself a nice flying saucer in the yard, to be the envy of all your neighbors and friends.

    At least, that's what I did once with two of three old satellite dishes in my yard...

    Cheers!

    --Stak

    --
    Holy happy hippy crap!
  5. Radio Astronomy by Murdoch5 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We did this at my school. We took a bunch of 3 meter dishes like on your property and turned them in to a astronomy farm. Now to be fair the software end of the project was intense to say the least but the pay off was huge. It was a sweet project and we accomplished it in under a year, It might be something for you to take a look at. Here are some links.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_astronomy
    http://www.nrao.edu/index.php/learn/radioastronomy
    http://www.radio-astronomy.net/

  6. Solar furnace? by berryjw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've always wanted to line one with Mylar, point it at the sun, and see what temperature you could generate at the focal point. How cool would it be to hang a crucible, and melt bronze?

  7. Solar concentrator by inode_buddha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've seen a few people make solar concentrators out of them, for thermal energy. Remember that sunlight is good for about 1 kiloWatt per square meter. The best way is to get 1-inch hex-shaped glass mirror - a whole shitload of them. Glue them onto the dish with epoxy until as much surface as possible is covered with them. You will get a few thousand degrees Fahrenheit temps at the focal point. You can use this to generate steam by putting a water block at the focal point - save on your heat bill, or make some electricity. For instance, by using an ordinary air-powered die grinder and run it on the steam instead. You can do a lot with 20 thousand RPM's that way.

    --
    C|N>K
  8. Alien signals from space by AbbeyRoad · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Whatever you do, don't make any broadcasts to alien vessels.
    Also, any signals you receive from the alien's should not be made public,
    or else YOU and your satelite dish will dissapear curtesy of secret UFO coverup agencies etc.

    Eat this message.

    -paul

  9. Use it for what it is... great dish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are many signals you can receive from space and 10ft is perfect for that.
    With some equipment (preamplifier, receiver that can do 2.3GHz) you can receive signals from interplanetary sondes and classified satellites.
    It's completely new world and if you enjoyed shortwave radio, you will love this.
    For list of signals you can receive check http://www.uhf-satcom.com/ - 10ft will do L-band, S-band, C-band and X-band with correct feed.

  10. Audio Eavesdropping by mbone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A large radio telescope makes a very good audio dish (the wavelengths are similar). If you can point it to the horizon, you might be able to hear conversations a mile or more off. Of course, it works both ways - they can hear you well too.

    I was once working on the receiver of a dish on the Potomac, while the dish was at "service" (i.e., pointed to the horizon, in this case over the water). When a sailboat would go through the beam, I could barely see it, but could hear the creak of the rigging and the slosh of the water, as if I was on it.

  11. Re:Free transmissions by Bert64 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Also try dishpointer.com, you use google maps to locate your property and it shows your lat/long and the elevation required for the sat, it also works out how high obstacles can be at a given distance.

    --
    http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
  12. Re:Have Fun with the neighbors by thechemic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, with a microphone mounted in the center this could be an extremely sensitive listening device. They use 10inch dishes with a mic to get vocals from football players as they grunt on the field. Imagine the power with your 10 FOOT dish! You may hear grunting at your neighbors house... but I doubt they'd be playing football.

    --
    Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.