Fun To Be Had With a 10-Foot Satellite Dish? 386
An anonymous reader writes "I'm moving to a rural community in the central United States. On the property is a satellite dish in excess of 3 meters in diameter that seems to still be in excellent condition. I already enjoy shortwave radio and was wondering what interesting TV feeds I might be able to catch with the dish. What kind of equipment would I need and how much should I expect to spend? If it's not useful for that purpose, what other fun projects might I use it for?"
It may still have LNA attached (Score:5, Informative)
Lyngsat & Azbox HD (Score:2, Informative)
Free transmissions (Score:5, Informative)
You can get DVB listening equipment (or software) pretty easily. There are a lot of satellites out there that broadcast PBS for free, and other stuff. Program/broadcast listings are available variously on the interwebs.
Basically, you'll have a small receive suite, decide what you'd like to hunt, and calculate the azimuth/elevation for your lat/long/alt. I start by slewing with a sat meter (horizon) in the horizontal axis and locate the strongest point before sweeping vertically to the expected altitude. There's a lot of methods for accurate aiming. Google. There's a host of sat information on http://www.lyngsat.com/. It'll tell you things like the bird's location, what it carries, transponder types and configurations, etc.
I set up a small hughesnet based ISP in Afghanistan a few years ago with what most people would consider a horribly barebones set of gear (including a wifi mast crafted from a cable spool with a length of pipe stuck through it), and I can tell you that you can definitely get by with some fun and interesting signal grabbing with practically nothing. Rather than explain it with a poorly written slashdot comment, check out http://sattv.lounge0101.com/free_to_air_satellite.php for some basic info. Free-to-air stuff is just a fraction of what you can pick up.
There's also more interesting stuff out thee, with the correct equipment you'll discover amateur repeaters, very capturable simple data broadcasts, meteorological phenomena, and other cool junk. I believe there's even a radio station/repeater on the ISS. Failing satellite reception, it's still just a huge parabola which focuses on the feed horn. Replace the feed element with something from another band and voila. Of course, antenna optimization for something like this is a book in itself, but I imagine you could have reasonable dish utilization by throwing a 2.4Ghz-tuned biquad at the focus point and probably get about 20-30 dBi of additional gain.
If you live by the border, you can probably pick up the border patrol's predator drone feeds using the correct equipment/software. It's broadcast in plain-jane video most of the time, although since I doubt there's border agents down there with mobile terminals in this case, the area-wide broadcasts are probably disabled in favor of LOS. Might be able to pull it off though.
FTA is alive (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Get a second... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:TV feeds to the TV companies (Score:5, Informative)
Those are called wildfeeds [wikipedia.org].
Re:Astronomy? (Score:5, Informative)
Line with tinfoil. Hang a grill over the focal point. Point at sun.
Cook sun-dried beef jerky.
Re:Radio Astronomy (Score:2, Informative)
Also due to the tight constraints I would love go back and now edit the code to actually make it look good, I'm sure it's a mess. I haven't looked at it in over a year now but it's still kicking it.
Ricks Satellite Wildfeed and Backhaul Forum (Score:4, Informative)
Get yourself good DVB-S2 receiver like PROF 7500 USB or PROF 7301 PCI or Azbox HD
from ebay or Ricks site http://www.gofastmotorsports.com/rickssatellitehome.htm [gofastmotorsports.com]
and check out all the HD feeds you can watch.
http://rickcaylor.websitetoolbox.com/ [websitetoolbox.com]
Satelliteguys is another good website but their wild feeds subforums is invitation only
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/ [satelliteguys.us]
DIY Radio Telescope (Score:5, Informative)
There's a number of people that have turned old TV antennas into radio telescopes.
Here's an example:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Poor-Man-s-Radio-Telescope/ [instructables.com]
For more just google "DIY radio antenna"
There's even online stores that sell everything you need:
http://www.radioastronomysupplies.com/radio_astronomy_supplies.php [radioastro...pplies.com]
It could be an interesting project.
Re:Solar furnace? (Score:3, Informative)
Since most pools already receive substantially more solar radiation than a 3 meter circle, I don't think they will have to worry too much. Now the cat might get blinded, but would have to be really stupid to not run when you get within 5 foot or so with a giant reflective dish.
Re:UVB-76? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually reflector size compared to wavelenght is very much relevant.
A shortwave radio signal with a wavelength of 64meters isn't going to be reflected very well by a 3m dish.
It's called FTA.... (Score:5, Informative)
Look up "FTA Free to Air satellite "on google. start reading.
you will have to buy new feed-horns and I recommend also getting a decent HD FTA receiver. that can do both MPEG2 and MPEG4.
In about 1 month, you will have all the knowledge you need to find a crap-load of free TV. some strange, some normal, if you are into soccer then all the South america feeds will delight you as it seems there are about 987 channels of nothing but soccer... Oops sorry. Futbol!
the C band dish will allow you to watch some of the older stuff, but you can get a dual feed-horn to put both a C band and Ka band LNB on there to get all channels. add in a high end one that will do both polarization types and you expand your channel choices even further.
Re:If you're looking for fun, you're doing it wron (Score:3, Informative)
As a follow-up, if you want something that really IS out of control, try the lid of a toilet seat upside-down going downhill. It's so small that you're spending all your effort just staying perched on it, and it's so slick that you really pick up speed fast - half the time you're not even facing forward because it spins. Totally out of control and totally fun!
Hey, we were kids and we invented our own fun. The bruises were worth it.
Free to Air C Band? (Score:3, Informative)
I wonder if that's an old C Band free-to-air satellite TV dish? It sounds like it's on the large side, but it might work. Search "free to air" and you'll find the required LNB (low noise block converter) and receiver. Couple that with a small Ku-Band dish (one meter or less) and you'll have all the free-to-air your dishes can see. Check out www.lyngsat.com for lists of satellites, frequencies, and TV stations available. Big dishes give you more gain (stronger signal, was important back in the analog days, and still helps for C-Band), but bigger dishes have much smaller look angles (like a telescope versus binoculars) and are harder to aim.
I just have a one meter Ku Band dish. I recommend even smaller, to be easier to aim, unless you live really far from the equator. When I lived in northern New York the extra gain of a one meter dish helped a lot. We mostly point to the bird at 97 degrees west, and pick up about a hundred free channels. Many different languages, some good music and sometimes movies. But the only English-language channels are news and religion. If you are Chinese or Iranian, there is an excellent variety to choose from. Other satellites have more Spanish language, from what I've seen on lyngsat.
The receiver is the most expensive part, and it can be had for $100 or $200. If you want one that accepts smart cards, to descramble the pay channels, it might cost a bit more.
I added some of the detail above not for the original poster but for anyone else who might be interested.
Junk. Seriously. (Score:3, Informative)
It's aluminum. Take a six pack and some wrenches and take out your frustrations on it one afternoon. Then take it to the scrap yard and sell it. Aluminum has been going for $0.80 to $1.00 per pound the past year. Make sure it's "clean" with no ferrous metal still connected or you'll get maybe half that. While you're at it, take out the pipe it's set on and sell that too. Not much per pound, but lots of pounds. And then cover the hole over. And buy something nice with the money. And bring me some. You never take me anywhere anymore.
Re:FTA is alive (Score:2, Informative)
Some people call the whole assembly the antenna; others mean just the feed antenna or feed horn. (On this sort, it is usually integrated with the low-noise block-converter, the LNB.) The reflecting (dish) part of the antenna system is not polarized, but the feed antenna usually is.
It's kind of like using single sideband to double the number of CB channels... only I can see wanting more satellite links, I don't know why you'd want more CB channels.
Re:UVB-76? (Score:1, Informative)
You are the proud owner of an old 'C' band satellite system. Most of the programming has moved to the new pizza sized systems. Hams like me have converted them to use for Moon Bounce radio signals and other esoteric uses. Our wives have used them for sun shades, planters and to block the neighbours ugly piles of junk from view. Since you are itnerested in shortwave radio - pick up a copy of the ARRL (Radio Amateurs Handbook) for other interesting projects.
73
de VE7CSQ
Re:UVB-76? (Score:1, Informative)
I think Phase 3d (amsat) was operational in an equitorial orbit (+/-4). The idea was that you could mount the feed on an offset just above or below the focus of the dish and only every few weeks would you need to change the declination angle by moving the feet point a little. In this way you could track the bird using only one axis of motion. Haven't checked this satellite in a couple of years to see what (if) it's still active.
de AI4PX
Re:TV feeds to the TV companies (Score:3, Informative)
Aloha Airlines Flight 243 [wikipedia.org].
Re:FTA is alive (Score:1, Informative)
A solid or mesh dish* is just a reflector and will normally reflect waves of any polarization. It is the feed horn that is polarized.
*Other dishes, [xagyl.com] however, may have a polarized design.
Use it to read Slashdot more often? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not sure you will get much TV these days (Score:2, Informative)
That dish would be a C-Band dish. Most television is Ku-Band these days. The C-Band is still used however, but mostly for network to network communications. A lot of that is still unencrypted because most people have the pizza sized dishes.
The pickup on the dish however may be a combination C/Ku band however and that would work with any satellite feed.
Re:UVB-76? (Score:2, Informative)
The old owner most likely took his hardware with him. So the poster will need some C-band gear
http://skyvision.com/store/dtv.html [skyvision.com]
http://skyvision.com/store/dsr410.html [skyvision.com]
http://skyvision.com/store/c-band_store_page1.html [skyvision.com]
http://www.satelliteguys.us/ [satelliteguys.us]
http://store.satellitemart.com/C-band_c_62.html [satellitemart.com]
http://www.sat-direction.com/ [sat-direction.com]
http://www.satbeams.com/ [satbeams.com]
Re:UVB-76? (Score:1, Informative)
My mom has a 10 ft dish in detroit we got back in the early 90's cause we were tired of rising cable tv costs -- everything is encrytped and you have to pay a subscribtion fee that basically updates your codes for channels every month.
You can use it for TV if you want... (Score:2, Informative)
It's been awhile since I've worked in satellite communications but you can use it to pick up free Satellite TV.
Most satellites that broadcast TV have a few stations broadcasting in the clear i.e no encryption but you need a few things. A basic guide for sat TV here http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/satellite-tv.htm [howstuffworks.com] needs to be read. You will need an LMB (Low Noise Block) to filter out background noise. It's my understanding that mos satellite receivers now days already come with LMBs built in these days so check specs. The predominately used receiver is most likely a Scientific Atlanta DSR. Some of transponders still broadcast on VCII but I doubt you'll find much in North America. With Digital satellite TV you can fit 12 channels on a signal transponder while analog it's one transponder one channel. You'll probably be using analog signal to start with since it's just easier.
Now you need a list of satellites for North America (or wherever you're from) can be found here http://www.lyngsat.com/ [lyngsat.com] which has a complete listing would over. They will also detail type of feed channels and transponders of the satellites as well as type of encryption encoding etc. Again check specs on potential receivers.
Next you need to point it at a bird. 5 seconds on Google gave me this guide. http://searchwarp.com/swa40134.htm [searchwarp.com] one thing we used to do is look up a channel broadcasting in the clear on the satellite we were aiming at on the Lyngsat site and then tune the satellite receiver to that transponder, channel and polarity so we could see how close we were getting to it by looking at clairty of signal on a TV.
In other words it's a big pain in the ass. You are probably better off using it as a bird feeder.
Protest! (Score:4, Informative)
Protest HBO's rates by interfering with their signal!
$12.95/MONTH? NO WAY !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._MacDougall [wikipedia.org]