a 12" and 9" dish that received 119W

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ken2400

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Original poster
Sep 4, 2004
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Central NY State
Can you believe it! My wife was tosing these fine lids out. I had to check to see if I could use them.

The 12" received a 90 or so signal off 119 W and the 9" was around 50. I have to try a 6" to see what happens. Altho the lnbf is starting to get in the way at 9"

Ken
 

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Ken, this leads me to wonder if you've ever tried just facing the LNB toward the satellite without a reflector. :rolleyes: I know there won't be a concentrated beam into the LNB, but from the strength of these DBS satellites, I would imagine you'll see a couple of signal quality points (and hear the appropriate "really low but there" signal strength tone) from the receiver. Also the polarization will be backwards, so you'll either have to use one of those special reversed LNBs for torroidal dishes, or go into your receiver and change the polarization setting for whatever TP(s) you point on.

Also, this brings up the idea that perhaps a specially shaped "cone" of sorts around the front of the LNB and extending outward could direct more signal into it. As with dishes (and maybe moreso), its shape would have to be fairly precise. But not too hard to imagine, if you assume the waves are essentially parallel to each other down here.

Anyways, good work on all your "dish substitution" experiments! :)
 
It seems that with the shape of those two lids a signal may not be able to be locked or will just barely lock in the mid to upper 30's with very precise adjustment with an 8" dish (on a clear sunny day of course). If one wants to try to experiment to see what the smallest size of dish that a signal could be reached on the first step would be to get the smallest dish possible to receive a lockable signal. The next step would be to change the shape of that dish to try to decrease the size a little more. The next step beyond that would be to try to get a higher gain lnbf or modifications to the lnbf.

I have heard of phased arrays that are smaller but am curious what the smallest phased array that could be made in order to accomplish a signal strength and maybe combining different ideas together such as the phased array and torroidal dish design to get the ultimate small sized dish.

In addition I wonder how much smaller it could have become if the satellites were even higher powered. Remember when Voom was initially going to have a 13" sized dish because of the higher powered satellites but they decided not to in order to have additional channels (if I recall correctly)?

I wonder if one could use mirrors and/or magnifying glass (perhaps concaved even or multiple layers) to concentrate the signal in a new type of way.
 
FIRST read the following post before reading this one, thanks.

Stargazer said:
I wonder if one could use mirrors and/or magnifying glass (perhaps concaved even or multiple layers) to concentrate the signal in a new type of way.
You'll have hundreds of great channels all at 100% signal strength, and to top it off, no ants in a half mile radius! :)

But if you screw up in pointing your new super magniflector deathbeam dish, all your neighbors will suffer temporary blindness and your own retinas will be vaporized. :( But once you do succeed in pointing it, you'll still have all the great audio-only channels! :cool:

One technical issue I see though is that glass tends to block or at least negatively impact the signal as it tries to pass through it... not quite the same as visible light.
 
And Stargazer, to guard against any possible misunderstanding, let me state that my above post wasn't intended to be making fun of your suggestion, as some will surely believe. That is a very interesting idea, one that's never occurred to me. As I point out at the end of the above post, though, a magnifying glass, per say, will likely reduce or block the signal. However, I still do think it's a great idea. I'm sure some of the physics behind the magnifying glass could be applied to a different material in some manner to achive an interesting signal focusing effect (without simply reproducing the dish reflective focusing effect).

(...if anything, my earlier suggestion of trying the LNB directly pointed toward the satellite, without reflector, should be scoffed at)
 
We have been testing a circularly polarized KU antenna that has no reflector, just a long tube. Adequate gain for most dss signals, but the beam width is at least 5 degrees. The technology has a way to go before it is useful for FSS!
 
Isn't there material that is not glass that magnifies? What is the tube made of and how is this being done? Sounds very interesting.
 
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Channel Master Dish Question

Which switch for Standard Ku LNB and Dish 500 on one cable?

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