Alternative Uses For an Old Satellite Dish? 552
Posted
by
kdawson
from the birdbath-for-condors dept.
from the birdbath-for-condors dept.
ya really writes "My family has one of those BUDs (Big Ugly Dishes) sitting in their back yard still. The other day they asked me if I would take it apart for them. Aside from simply recycling it, I was wondering if there are any alternatives for its use. It was one of the last made before DirectTV and Dish took over satellite broadcasting, and even has a digital receiver. I'd say it was made around 1996."
Use as... well... (Score:4, Informative)
Bird Baths...
Re:Use as... well... (Score:5, Funny)
No, Mythbusters! (Score:5, Interesting)
Just give it the Mythbusters treatment and make an "Archimedes Death Ray" (AKA, very-short-range-small-stuff-burner-but-only-on-very-sunny-days.)
Re:No, Mythbusters! (Score:5, Informative)
Rob from Cockeyed.com made his own Archimedes Death Ray and it worked:
http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/solardish/dish01.shtml [cockeyed.com]
Re:No, Mythbusters! - water heater (Score:3, Interesting)
If it can work as a death ray then a more useful hack would be to heat water. it will be more fun if it has a motor as some of these did.
not sure how difficult it may be to control the dish with a computer so it always focuses sun to a point where u can have a metal container holding water.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No, Mythbusters! (Score:4, Funny)
fun/dangerous
Are you suggesting that the two can be mutually exclusive? Will the wonders never cease!
ACCOUSTIC death ray, or listen to the neighbors (Score:4, Funny)
Put a speaker or microphone in the focus, hang a bed sheet over it so no one can see what it is. Then whisper instructions to the crazy people down on the street. Play music only they can hear.
Or point it at the neighbors house and listen in.
Re:ACCOUSTIC death ray, or listen to the neighbors (Score:4, Funny)
Re:No, Mythbusters! (Score:5, Funny)
As long as all your enemies are less than three feet away, it makes a damn fine death ray. Now you know where the "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" proverb comes from.
Re:No, Mythbusters! (Score:5, Funny)
Being a true villain, I always feel the need to strap my enemies to a bench within a metre of my death ray so this should work perfectly!
Re:No, Mythbusters! (Score:5, Funny)
Ah yes, the infamous VSRSSBBOOVSD.
Re:No, Mythbusters! (Score:5, Funny)
Ah yes, the infamous VSRSSBBOOVSD.
...of death.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That's too obvious. If you're going to make a "weapon" out of it, at least make a HERF gun [zdnet.com]. Don't even have to silver it for that ;)
If you are going to silver it... hmm, how perfect of a parabola is it? If it's good enough, or if you could machine it [wikipedia.org] to that good of precision, you could use it as the primary mirror on a huge truss tube telescope [cloudynights.com].
Re:No, Mythbusters! (Score:5, Funny)
A solar oven...
OF DEATH!
Flamboastin (Score:5, Funny)
A green use... (Score:5, Interesting)
Literally.
We had an old 8ft dish. My dad and I covered
the mounting holes with stainless mesh, filled
it with good soil and compost and planted a
nice selection of butterfly/hummingbird flowers
in it.
This kept certain plants from roaming beyond
the area desired. Use plants that trellis or
hang to cover the ugly sides/underside.
That oversized planter has been going for over
a decade now. The plants do a good job of
reseeding every year.
-AI
Re:A green use... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've read in the past, that you can grab the signals coming down that the local stations use, and it is a better feed than what is then compressed and sent out by the local, and even Dish/DirectTv services.
Re:A green use... (Score:5, Interesting)
Why use it as a receiver -- it works just as well as a transmitter.
Use it to signal alien overlords (that they won't receive your transmission for millions of years is beside the point), or to send "instructions" to NASA probes too old to have authentication and authorization protocols...
Or you could extend your WiFi to your favorite fishing spot.
Non-radio uses? Well, it could easily be turned into a sundial. It even comes with a gnomon; you just need a wabe.
Or, you could glue a Metallic Rod With A Red Tip to the center, and point it at your most paranoid neighbor's house.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
For radio uses- add one high powered tesla coil and, well go figure :).
You think this would actually work? Cool. One more thing to have my friends bail me out of jail for.
Re:A green use... (Score:5, Funny)
We actually did this in college - pointed it at the paranoid administrators who thought we had nothing better to do than listen in on their conversations.
In retrospect, it probably didn't help that we drew attention by having a flickering red light, wore headphones and pointed at them and laughed. One time, they closed the curtains (like THAT would help).
Every time we'd stick it out the window, they'd send security guards - but, we'd take it down before they arrived.
Learn to make Paella (Score:5, Funny)
It's not hard.
Re:Use as... well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Use as... well... (Score:4, Informative)
If you have a shortwave scanner or CB radio, try hooking it up to the satellite dish
It would be just as effective as not connecting it at all. The HF band is 3-30 MHz. The satellite band (for this dish) is probably above 1 GHz. Even FRS would probably not work. But if you have a ham rig for the band it might be useful for EME.
Obvious Answer: Wi-Fi Antenna (Score:5, Informative)
Satellite dishes make excellent directional 802.11 antennas.
Just remove the existing LNB from the dish and replace it with a homemade antenna, like a biquad, tuned for your band-of-interest (i.e. 2.4GHz ISM for wi-fi). Make sure you get a powerful (high RX sensitivity & high TX power) wireless card with an external antenna jack
Here is one project write-up, though I'm sure there are many others:
http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/ [engadget.com]
Alternatively, keep the LNB, get a DVB capture card (PCI models go for $20-$80+ new), and use the dish to get FTA (free to air) satellite TV.
There are many communities for this kind of thing exactly, just search google for: FTA forum
I'd also take apart that digital receiver and reverse engineer the hardware as much as I could, just for kicks.
When you've gotten your hour of fun out of it, gut it for parts and move on to the next interesting project.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Watch out for the power supply in that receiver. It (or at least much of it)is probably not transformer isolated from the wall socket.
Less Obvious Answer: Radio Telescopes (Score:5, Interesting)
And I wanted to write the processing portion
http://www.signalone.com/radioastronomy/telescope/ [signalone.com]
http://www.radiosky.com/faq.html [radiosky.com]
http://www.mtmscientific.com/radiotelescope.html [mtmscientific.com]
http://www.radiotelescopebuilder.com/ [radioteles...uilder.com]
One of these days, I'll put that 3 meter dish to use.
Re:Less Obvious Answer: Radio Telescopes (Score:5, Interesting)
I did [slashdot.org] this as well - an (old) picture of the dish is here [gornall.net] - that was back when I lived in London - who needs a back yard, anyway ? :-)
Simon.
More Obvious Answer (Score:3, Informative)
Use it for observing the radiation emitted by passing communication satellites, particularly in th 4-8Ghz range.
Obvious Answer: World Record Wi-Fi Antenna (Score:5, Informative)
Some lads with a couple of your dishes cracked 125 miles [boingboing.net] during the 2005 Defcon Wi-fi distance shoot out. With your one dish on one end, and even the weakest built-in wifi antenna on the other, you can still create a solid network connection to the next County. If the other antenna is a run of the mill 15 or 24 dB directional wifi, you can really crank.
Re:Remote DOS (Score:5, Funny)
Satellite dishes make excellent directional 802.11 antennas.
Just remove the existing LNB from the dish and replace it with a homemade antenna, like a biquad, tuned for your band-of-interest (i.e. 2.4GHz ISM for wi-fi). Make sure you get a powerful (high RX sensitivity & high TX power) wireless card with an external antenna jack
Me looking at access log and seeing wireless hack attempts... Looks at old C band dish and old microwave oven.. Hmm let's scan for the intruder and see if that laptop likes a KW of focused power in the WiFi band!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Just be careful with that microwave oven. Those magnetrons can be dangerous.
Thanks for posting the warning. My post was humor. I used to repair the ovens in the electronics shop, so I am aware, however the causal reader of Slashdot should heed the warning. They typically operate at about 4KV. If the HV doesn't get you right away, the effects from exposure to the radiation or dust from a smashed magnetron could produce lasting lingering health problems.
Re:Obvious Answer: Wi-Fi Antenna (Score:4, Insightful)
Since little USB wifi and bluetooth adaptors are so cheap, you could mount one of those at the dish focus. Make a wooden block to hold in, which replaces the LNB.
Re:Obvious Answer: Wi-Fi Antenna (Score:4, Insightful)
Although the reflectors for either C or Ku band dishes would work fine, it should be noted that the FCC regulates the effective radiated power. Check out FCC EIRP (equivalent isotropic radiated power) Limits [seattlewireless.net].
The reference is an isotropic radiator... like having a point source radiating energy equally in ALL directions (up and down as well as the horizontal plane. A vertically oriented half-wavelength dipole has 2.15 dB gain over an isotropic radiator. If vertical, it radiates equally in all directions horizontally, but drops to nothing straight up and straight down.
Many have used a dipole as an alternate reference since it the lowest gain and most basic antenna normally constructed.
The EIRP rating is basically the amount of power it would take fed into an isotropic antenna to equal the signal produced from the gain (focusing effect) of a directional antenna. Some get confused by antenna gain. It doesn't give us more power than a transmitter puts out, it just concentrates the signal in a desired (hopefully!) direction at the expense of other directions.
The FCC rule differ for point to point versus point to multipoint WiFi. Point to multipoint the limit is 4 Watts effective regardless of antenna gain. (36 dBm, m being mw or milliwatts) A 100 mw card (20dbmw) feeding a 16 dBi gain antenna would produce 36 dbmw EIRP if there was no cable loss. If 3 dB was lost, it would take 200 mw into the cable to compensate (23dbm -3dB + 16dBi = 36
Point to multipoint starts at the level for a low gain antenna, but only requires a fairly small reduction in transmitter output power as higher antenna gain is used. So the maximum allowable signal does increase quite a bit with higher gain antennas.
Since things are pretty close to line of sight at 2.4 GHz, a huge dish near the ground (and not pointing up in the sky) isn't likely to do nearly as well as a smaller one up above the clutter. So most C band dishes (usually 2 to 4 meters across) are too big for most situations. Gain is probably best estimated by comparison with commercial dishes of the same diameter and frequency.
Allowable power is likely different in other countries. Your mileage (kilometerage????) may vary
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Whoops.. where I defined EIRP rating, I actually was describing antenna gain (actually 10 * log of the ratio (power needed into isotropic to match directional / power fed into directional) the units are dbi. Transmit power in dbm (db compared to a milliwatt) + antenna gain dbi = EIRP
dB are a log ratio always comparing something to a reference level. The nice thing about describing it all with logs of ratios is having the end calculations with power, gain and loss become simple adding and subtracting inste
Re:Obvious Answer: Wi-Fi Antenna (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That's what I have here at home. My BUD is pointed to AMC-4 at 101W longitude. I have a International Datacasting SRA-2100 data receiver connected to a Linux box and that Linux box runs software from Noaaport.net. I get NEXRAD radar data, satellite imagery, weather watches and warnings, and all the computer models. All raw and mostly unprocessed.
Re:A thought (Score:4, Interesting)
Depends. If it's a mesh dish, you may get much less reflection of higher frequency signals once the wavelength gets shorter than about twice the distance between bars in the mesh, IIRC. Probably not going to work too well for Ku band because the wavelength gets below 2 cm, so you'd need a mesh spacing of less than about .8 or .9 cm... I think.... If it is a solid dish, it should just work; a parabola is a parabola. Even still, it might work, but you won't get nearly the amount of extra reflection you'd ordinarily get from using such a large dish.
A broken thought (Score:3, Insightful)
Wrongo!
The only difference between c-band and ku-band dishes is in the feed-horn. because KU band is a much higher frequency, the aperture is much smaller, and thus a different sizing WG fitting is required to mate with the LNB. Of course, there is always the issue of polarity as well, linear and circular polarized feeds have different setups.
The dish itself is just a big surface area to collect signal and bounce it into the middle. You can get c band ku band l band, and pretty much all microwave frequen
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah well the bigger the better. A BUD has been used to break 802.11 distance records.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
He was likely bluffing. DirectTV uses NDS Videoguard, which AFAIK to this day remains unbroken. There are other networks out there that can be broken, and many of them require buying a "Common-Interface" card (basically a PCI-PCMCIA adapter) and a decrytion module.
wifi antenna? (Score:2, Interesting)
Tin Foil Hat Accessory. (Score:5, Funny)
2. Read other people's minds.
3. ???
4. Profit!
Re:Tin Foil Hat Accessory. (Score:5, Funny)
I dunno. (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe you could use it to create some sort of device that would beam correct spellings into /. submissions?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
But Why??
That would destroy the "habitat" of the Spelling and Grammar Nazi's on ./
Where would they go? What would they do? They might actually be forced to read articles and post actual content instead of editing the rest.
Come on, have a heart. If an occassional spelling mistake makes it into ./ which gives their lives meaning, let them have it.
Obligatory (Score:3)
Re:Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
LMAO! Yeah.... I know.
The Joke {----------------
------------
The HUGE space in between
------------
Your Head {---------------
amateur radio astronomy (Score:2, Interesting)
you could use the dish to setup a amateur radio astronomy listening post.
Well. . . (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well. . . (Score:5, Funny)
Females?
This guy posted on ./
Why don't you just ask him to build you a working warp core while your at it :)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Sled (Score:5, Interesting)
This may be a bit redneck, but when I was a kid a friend had one. We took it down and used it as a big saucer sled to pull behind a truck in winter. It was great fun.
Re:Sled (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Shouldn't be that hard to hit a groundhog with a 12 gauge, depending on what you're loading it with. Really, all you have to do is point it in the right direction. Impressive, nonetheless...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's why if the truck needs to stop abruptly, the driver does so by turning sharply and launching the dish riders out into the snow.
cook dinner ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wok (Score:3, Funny)
The one in my neighbor's back yard is made of solid sheet steel, weighs a ton and is about 8 feet in diameter. You could stir-fry enough Chinese food in it to feed the whole neighborhood. Hmmm, might be a good way to get rid of all those pesky feral cats [asianjoke.com] roaming the neighborhood too.
Cooking! (Score:5, Interesting)
Since it's parabolic, you can can, with the addition of some reflectivity, use it to concentrate the powers of the sun [backyardnature.net], suitable for culinary and other low-heat chemistry.
Wifry in reverse! (Score:3, Funny)
Reflecting! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's all about concentration. With an area of 1m^2, you can get nearly a kilowatt, concentrate that down in to an area of 10 or 20 cm^2 and you can do some really impressive stuff.
Attach handles... (Score:4, Interesting)
...and go sledding!
XKCD has the answer (Score:5, Funny)
Loud sex [xkcd.org].
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You must be new here...
Re:XKCD has the answer (Score:4, Funny)
Great source for $0 TV (Score:5, Informative)
Full size satellite dishes are still the best way to receive free television content, despite what the cable / pay satellite providers may imply in their advertising. If you don't have any place to put it yourself, it shouldn't be too difficult to find someone who would be willing to buy it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
the new broadcast HD tv signals are directional as well, you might want to hook it up to a HD tv or converter box to see if it's powerful enough to get far off cities.
Re:Great source for $0 TV (Score:4, Interesting)
Full size satellite dishes are still the best way to receive free television content, despite what the cable / pay satellite providers may imply in their advertising. If you don't have any place to put it yourself, it shouldn't be too difficult to find someone who would be willing to buy it.
After five years of dissatisfaction with Dish Network, my mother has asked my brother and me to get the big ugly dish that came with the house working. The "$0 for cable channels" thing is pretty enticing.
One question? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes there 'r'. :)
keep it (Score:5, Insightful)
Go over to lyngsat.com [lyngsat.com] and see what you can see. Satellite TV is far more than what the media companies are willing to sell you.
DeathStar? (Score:5, Funny)
Either grow a massive hedge in an orb shape and stick this dish in the top section just like the DeathStar from StarWars or just do the same thing (sans hedge) with paper mache.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Uhhh, actually... that is a really good idea. Fantastically good.
Nothing would get you more geek street cred than having your own DeathStar in the front yard. Extra Points if you mount it in a container that allows you to aim at various neighbors with a high powered green laser inside of it.
Re:DeathStar? (Score:5, Funny)
what to do with BUDs (Score:5, Funny)
Radio Telescope (Score:5, Interesting)
Fountain (Score:4, Interesting)
Will still be a while making it though... I've been a year on an addition to the house and cleaning up the mess that the previous owner left.
C band (Score:5, Informative)
Get a C band LNB and point to the next C band sat that is out there.
Plenty of C band channels out there. A good list is here.
http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html [lyngsat.com]
sculpture (Score:5, Funny)
Burn, Cook, Roof, Sled, Pond (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.mountlehmanllamas.com/feeder-sat-dish.html [mountlehmanllamas.com]
Cover it with aluminum foil and make a solar cooker
http://www.backyardnature.net/j/solardsh.htm [backyardnature.net]
Cover it in mirrors and melt/combust an amazing verity of things
http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/solardish/dish23.shtml [cockeyed.com]
Giant Snow sled
Big Flower planter
Garage Sale Sign
Fish Pond
convergence (Score:4, Funny)
I say combine two ideas: bird bath and solar death ray.
Yum, BBQ!
TV, Ham radio, etc (Score:5, Informative)
You could also:
thermal collector (Score:5, Interesting)
Yank out the transceiver, put in a heat exchanger in its place. Use sheets of 1/2 " peel and stick mirror tiles to cover the dish surface. Pick up a small 4 sided pyramid, put photocells on all 4 sides, and use a couple of differential op-amps to determine which side has the most light hitting it.
Use those two signals to run the motor controls to aim the dish. It will always point at the brightest spot in the sky. A small pump feeding fluid (such as connonseed oil) thru the heat exchanger, to a large thermal well( say a buried concrete container full of steel slugs), will gather all the heat you need. Use the secondary loop from the thermal well for your home heating, hot water, cooking. etc. (cottonseed oil will easily heat to 400F)
Bionic Ear (Score:5, Interesting)
mount a microphone at its focal point and aim that sucker (carefully) at whatever you would like to hear.
I also second, third, or whatever the notion of a death ray,
take a microwave oven apart and get creative with the +10 ray of amana.
How about for TV? (Score:3, Informative)
Wifi (Score:4, Funny)
Set up a WiFi link to the moon.
Mind Play (Score:5, Funny)
Lower the dish so its pointing directly at your neighbours house.
When they enquire about it; Tell them you can now read their email.
Refuse to elaborate.
My shrink's neighbour has a dish pointed at the shrinks office. He says the paranoid delusionals love it. I love it too. Total coincidence.
Free TV... (Score:5, Informative)
I wrote about think kind of thing briefly in my journal a while back: http://slashdot.org/~evilviper/journal/189083 [slashdot.org]
You've already got most everything you need... For the cost of a DVB-S receiver ($40 for a PCI model, $100 for a set-top-box), you can get quite a few free TV channels, in addition to raw feeds and other eccentric stuff. No monthly fees required. That doesn't include most "cable" channels, but much more than you'll get with an antenna.
Alternatively, if your dish was already fitted with a Ku-band LNBF, you could simply aim it at the DirecTV sat, and get a VERY strong signal, eliminating drop-outs even in the even of airplane flyovers, or extremely heavy rain fade.
But I would suggest throwing out the DirecTV subscription, and going with the big-ugly-dish you already own, and a 4DTV receiver. It's easily the cheapest way to get subscription channels, probably less than 1/4rd the price of DirecTV or DishNet. Ala carte subscriptions are a big advantage that could save you dramatically.
Solar reflector for a Stirling electric generator! (Score:4, Interesting)
I am want to work on a Solar concentrator that will spin a Sterling engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine [wikipedia.org] which drives an electric generator. Just mount a Stirling engine to the focal point with a reflective surface http://www.sprol.com/?p=265 [sprol.com] that concentrates the heat, and add a sun tracker system to it and you will have free electricity for life! Of course how much power you generate depends on the dish diameter, your geographical location, and the reflective surface you use. In any case a Stirling is more efficient that the current photovoltaic technology we have available today. I would be doing this now except I don't have the "reflective surface" and the required sun tracker hardware in place yet. My tiny little 6" lathe just won't spin a six foot disk no matter how hard I try, and nobody seems to be throwing these big dishes out when I am conveniently available.
Uses for a BIG dish. (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, you have to be kidding me. Someone should take away your Slashdot license. :)
What would a geek do with a big honkin' parabolic reflector? All kinds of things.
1) The most obvious, pick up old satellite signals. I'm pretty sure (but not positive) that the C and KU bands are still in use. I used to watch live feeds for various news stations, along with all kinds of weird broadcasting. It was my first exposure to local TV in other areas.
2) "Free to air". I won't say anything else about that, it's up to you to research.
3) Listen in on unencrypted government traffic. There was a news story about this a few years ago. Some folks in England were intercepting not-so-secret US Government recon flights over Eastern Europe. (If they were to be really secret, they would have been encrypted and on different satellites). Just because the antenna normally points on one arc, it doesn't mean that's the only things to listen to.
4) One heck of a 802.11b/g antenna. :) Watch out for the FCC though, that's a lot of gain. You may need to put a finer mesh screen over your existing panels. Check your wavelengths.
5) Parabolic reflector + big light source (sun) = quick fried lunch. Cover it in mylar, and don't look into it directly. Better yet, don't be in front of it. It's all natural, and doesn't hurt the environment much. :)
6) Parabolic reflector + microphone = really big parabolic microphone. Since you still have the mylar on from #5, all you have to do is mount the microphone. Well, you may want to use something less optically reflective, like saran wrap, unless you want to risk cooking your $5 microphone. :)
7) Parabolic reflector + Microwave oven magnetron = trouble. Your 802.11b/g transmitter may have been putting off 0.025W (0.200W if you bought a good card). What happens when you pump 700W+ into the dish? :) How about a dozen magnetrons aimed into a smaller dish at the focal point, to reflect back down into the main dish first? 8.4KW and the gain of your antenna. You could cook your dinner from a few miles away. Don't aim it at friends, enemies, or anything you don't want to mess up pretty quick.
8) Get another one the same size, cover them both in mylar, and have your own UFO parked in the back yard. Sell the pictures to the National Enquirer, and then sell the UFO on eBay with a signed copy of that edition.
and on to the boring options.
9) Scrap metal?
10) Pull the panels, and you'll have really big snow shoes.
11) Pull the panels for snow sled racing this winter.
12) Pull the panels, Cover the convex side with styrofoam and fiberglass, and make some totally rad knee boards.
Enjoy!
Dream (Score:5, Funny)
You could fall asleep in it and broadcast your dreams all over the world.
DirectTV reflector (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe you'll be able to watch tv during rainstorms.
Such uninspired responses... (Score:3, Funny)
Load it onto the back of a truck, head into the mountains, and recreate the shield-sled scene from Willow.
Evil Overlord (Score:3, Funny)
Coat it with aluminum, polish it, and attach a powerful lamp in place of the reciever.
aim it at your neighbors and fire it up.
Why Alternative?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Just use it... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Solar oven (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Point-to-Point wifi, etc (Score:4, Funny)