Looking to buy or make folding 30" sat dish. Any ideas

[ken2400]

Just when on a trip and wish I had a folding/portable 30+ " dish. Any ideas on how to make one or where to buy one?

Thanks

 

[mikekohl]

I've got some 30 inch (76 cm) Patriot antennas, which when the LNBF arm is not permanently pinned into place, allow the arm to fold up into the depths of the dish. Just pull it out to the normal position when needed using the forces of gravity, and you have a compactable 30 inch travel dish. If you were considering the idea of smaller pieces to build the reflector part, it is not advised. Surface accuracy is almost impossible to duplicate time after time, unless you have a very expensive reflector that was specifically designed for that purpose, with lots of reinforcement. I find that a 30 inch offset by itself does not really take up that much room; can be slipped onto the top of your cargo in most situations, whether in the back of a station wagon, or fit into most trunk compartments.

 

[JoelA]

Ken,

This site was in a recent thread in this forum. Pretty neat for a homebuilt project.

http://www.g6lvb.com/brollydish.htm

 

[LordAlex]

Interesting..I've been tossing this very idea around in my head. I thought about using the back of a 1m dish to form a fiberglass skin, one cloth layer thick. My idea was to make a light weigh add-on for 76 cm dishes. The LNB arm would of course need to match the larger dish that was molded. But such an idea might very well be used to form a portable dish. It could be halved or quartered while wet or dry depending on the tools you have.

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