Trying if thin plastic and small metal items diminish strength and quality of satellite signal

polgyver

Creative Tinkerer
Original poster
Pub Member / Supporter
Sep 21, 2010
489
371
Toronto
For a quite long time I think of building a small laser, located on a large magnetic compass, which could shine a beam of light exactly parallel to rays coming from a satellite. I already tried lasers which were pre-set and stationary, when I did some experiments with double and triple reflections of satellite beams.
However, I was worried if such a device might weaken the satellite signal, particularly if I also made sort of shielding for the compass.
That's before proceeding with making such compass with laser, I decided to try some "obstacles" on the dish.
I found out, that placing a big plastic bottle (empty and dry), and also 2 LiFePo batteries in the signal path, almost does not degrade signal.
Seven photos attached below:
 

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Sorry for not providing more info in previous post. Half of the big bottle would be a top cover for the compass, preventing its movement from wind.
The 2 batteries were used as a chunk of metal, to represent the metal body of a laser pointer. Initially I was planning to use just a minimal size laser diode (1/4" x 3/4") powered from smallest coin batteries, but now I see it is not necessary, as I can use toy laser of dia = 1/2" and length 2 or 3" - easy to use.