Making an 18 inch Satellite dish into a long range WiFi antenna

[mmcl26554]

I am making a long range WiFi antenna using an old 18 inch single LNB satellite dish. I have made a bi-quad antenna on a copper clad reflector and attached it to the old LNB which I gutted. I will be mostly transmitting in a horizontal plane. I know these small dishes receive signal at an angle, but I don't know at what angle to orient it for horizontal transmission and reception. What I want to know is what angle point down should the feed arm be for horizontal transmission. I have read that it is 45 degrees but that looks to sharp can any of you people who know about such things share with me the angle.
Thanks
Michael

 

[Jim S.]

Most Ku-band dishes are offset something like 21-24 degrees. I don't know if the same holds for a Dish dish, but it looks about right.

 

[wallyhts]

I am making a long range WiFi antenna using an old 18 inch single LNB satellite dish. I have made a bi-quad antenna on a copper clad reflector and attached it to the old LNB which I gutted. I will be mostly transmitting in a horizontal plane. I know these small dishes receive signal at an angle, but I don't know at what angle to orient it for horizontal transmission and reception. What I want to know is what angle point down should the feed arm be for horizontal transmission. I have read that it is 45 degrees but that looks to sharp can any of you people who know about such things share with me the angle.
Thanks
Michael

Did you see this?
http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/

 

[mmcl26554]

Yes, I did see it, and when I set the antenna it still looks like it's pointing down to much, but maybe that is the way it should be. That is why I asked.
Michael

 

[Stargazer]

The tilt at the engadget link looks correct from all the angles I seen at the different websites when I researched this in the past. It tilts a bit.

 

[mmcl26554]

I have it setup now as the article you refer to says. The tilt of the dish is @ 45 degrees and the mounting pole has a 45 degree bend in it so thats where it is. It just looked like a lot of tilt. I will begin testing tomorrow. This is for a friend of mine who has cable internet in their shop but her home is about 700-1000 feet further in on the same property. Comcast wants an arm & a leg plus their first born to string cable. I told her I believe I can construct a high gain antenna to transmit the internet signal.
Michael

 

[KE4EST]

Let us know what you come up with.

 

[wallyhts]

I would highly suggest using perhaps a cheap RouterBOARD like a RB711-2HnD.
http://www.streakwave.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=RB711-2HnD

Have fun. Like ke4est said please post results.

 

[mmcl26554]

I sure will! I will include pictures also.
Michael

 

[mmcl26554]

Todays testing:
I connected it to my laptop, first with a stick antenna and found a couple of access points other than my own. Then I connected it to the dish and got 2 pages of access points. Every time I rotated it 90 degrees I got a whole other set of access points. Then I connected my own access point to it and drove my car to a hill on a level with my home and about a mile away. I used my laptop with it's built in antenna and got a 75% signal and was able to connect. So there is no doubt it works well!

 

[Miner]

I did some reading in WiFi stuff years ago and using sat dishes can yield effective ranges between 2 WiFi setups into the 20+ mile range. One thing to keep in mind is the sat dish focuses a transmit signal, and imrpoves the gain of receive signal, to the aim of the dish. The output signal of the "other" end is not amplified or focussed, unless a dish is used on that end.
In other words, sat dish antennaes work in pairs, over long distances, acting as bridges. Back when I lived in Tx, a local company offered high speed internet via wifi. They had a base station w/ a series of parabolic dishes and each house that subscribed got their own parabolic dish.
Miner

 

[digiblur]

I wouldn't deal with a crazy setup like that. 1000ft is very very simple with even a little set of ubiquiti m2 locos. I bet you would have to turn down the power since it would be too hot.

I would definitely get some outdoor POE gear set it for wds(transparent layer mode.. Not a mesh mode) and call it day. You will never have to fool with it and the speeds will be great. I would recommend 5.8ghz gear if you have LOS.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

[jamescbarrow]

yeah i would like to see pictures of it.

 

[Stargazer]

A lot of the wifi providers will use a flat panel antenna with the radio built inside the box. The parabolic dishes are better in that they concentrate the signal and rejects noise.

 

[digiblur]

A lot of the wifi providers will use a flat panel antenna with the radio built inside the box. The parabolic dishes are better in that they concentrate the signal and rejects noise.

Parabolics is just over kill for 1000 ft. Mount these under the eave of the house and point them. So simple, nothing to bootleg rig up, etc. Very reliable and super easy.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EHSV4W/?tag=satell01-20

 

[Stargazer]

Yes, parabolics are overkill for short distances. Panels like whats in the ubiquiti units are fine for that. I have used some of the Ubiquiti's in the past and they are great for their price point. Ubiquiti makes a small parabolic antenna/radio as well.

 

[digiblur]

Yes, parabolics are overkill for short distances. Panels like whats in the ubiquiti units are fine for that. I have used some of the Ubiquiti's in the past and they are great for their price point. Ubiquiti makes a small parabolic antenna/radio as well.

Yes and they have some massive parabolic antennas as well.

I have used Engenius products, modded linksys, etc and stumbled upon ubiquiti and wow. They have some impressive products that still amaze me today on how well some of these wifi links work.

The ubiquiti forums are great. Lots of wisps there with some amazing pictures of crazy links with what seem to be perfect signals. And just can't beat the price of the equipment.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

[Stargazer]

When I was in the biz, Tranzeo, High Gain Antennas and Deliberant were king, before Ubiquiti came out. We just started getting into Ubiquiti before I got out because of their price and the cool things they done with the software. Deliberant has come out with some cheap items this past year to compete as well. Even the antenna manufacturer Arc has gotten into the game with some cheap products. I've had some crazy links in the past that have worked well.

I go to DSLReports a bit and once in a while to the Ubiquiti forums. Been waiting on the white spaces for a while to see how that will work out for them using the old analog television spectrum.

 

[mmcl26554]

BUT, the antenna I made was cheap. The dish was free and the antenna cost me $3 for a 25 foot roll of #24 bare copper wire, $.50 for 1/4 inch copper tube and I had the copper clad board,& Rg58. Then I get the satisfaction of making it myself! Works at least as well as similar commercial products. I don't the dish antenna is overkill, because I have to shoot the signal through trees, but even if it is, I couldn't have done it cheaper. If the signal is strong enough to penetrate to inside her home then her laptop won't need to be connected to an external antenna. But if I have to do that I may be able to use a repeater to broadcast the signal inside her home. In the end I resolve the problem for 2 good friends and save them a ton of money and have a lot of fun doing it. What could be better?
Michael

 

[mmcl26554]

yeah i would like to see pictures of it.

James,
I'll try to get pictures in a post tomorrow or the next day.
Michael