Where to find a Large Dish (Up to 1.5m) for Satellites and Hydrogen Line?

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T

Tranquility Base

New Member
My Satellite Setup
Work in progress. Not yet built.
My Location
Cambridgeshire - UK
Hello,

I'm hoping to use my SDRPlay RSP1B for weather satellite reception and, subsequently experimenting with Hydrogen Line reception.

Can anyone please advise me on where to find a dish, ideally 1m to 1.5m diameter and prime focus? (Probably used).

Any pointers would be gratefully received. There appears to be a lot of knowledgeable people on this forum.

Many thanks........Mike
 
If your looking into the Meteor weather satellites for a download then a satellite dish wont do it, you would need the special antenna for that system. Those satellites use the 137 MHz band for down loading the photos as they come over in orbit.

If your looking at the GOES satellite then again the dish is a bit too small as they use the 1.5 GHz band but may be out of range for your area.

There may be some other weather type satellites available but I don't have the info on them.

If you are looking into the Meteor type satellites then there are several antennas for the 137 MHz band, some are sold online others are hand made and not to hard to do.
 
Also on the Hydrogen line reception, that type of dish may be too small, I tried several types of dishes and found the only size that even came close (very very week signals) was my 3 meter mesh dish with a home made 1.420 GHz dipole antenna at the focal point, didn't work out too well so I haven't looked into that band in quite a while.
 
Thanks purplemarina. I have looked there but will continue to do so.

Thanks Terryl. I believe the QFH antenna is good. I'll look into that.
The Discovery dish (70cm or 80cm dia. from memory) works for hydrogen line reception. I'm surprised your 3m dish didn't work well.

Mike
 
Tranquility Base said:
Thanks purplemarina. I have looked there but will continue to do so.

Thanks Terryl. I believe the QFH antenna is good. I'll look into that.
The Discovery dish (70cm or 80cm dia. from memory) works for hydrogen line reception. I'm surprised your 3m dish didn't work well.

Mike
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I have a couple of 1.8 and 2m reflectors here. (Precision)

Since you are looking for something well below their intended frequency range they will be suitable but are you able to collect ?

What brings you to the forum anyway may I ask ?
 
Tranquility Base said:
Thanks purplemarina. I have looked there but will continue to do so.

Thanks Terryl. I believe the QFH antenna is good. I'll look into that.
The Discovery dish (70cm or 80cm dia. from memory) works for hydrogen line reception. I'm surprised your 3m dish didn't work well.

Mike
Click to expand...
I wish it did, but I think that the fact was that the coax was over 20 meters long, that dish was originally set up for "C" and "Ku" bands, also the linear actuator and V box are dead so I can't move it around anymore.

It's now in a fixed due West position but there are no satellites I can use in that direction, it has a very nice C and Ku band LNBF on it, but I took the Hydrogen band stuff off it to be used for the 137 MHz stuff.
 
Channel Hopper said:
I have a couple of 1.8 and 2m reflectors here. (Precision)

Since you are looking for something well below their intended frequency range they will be suitable but are you able to collect ?

What brings you to the forum anyway may I ask ?
Click to expand...
OK thanks. Where are you located please?

I joined to gain knowledge mainly.
 
Terryl said:
I wish it did, but I think that the fact was that the coax was over 20 meters long, that dish was originally set up for "C" and "Ku" bands, also the linear actuator and V box are dead so I can't move it around anymore.

It's now in a fixed due West position but there are no satellites I can use in that direction, it has a very nice C and Ku band LNBF on it, but I took the Hydrogen band stuff off it to be used for the 137 MHz stuff.
Click to expand...
OK. Maybe that explains it. I'm still very much a beginner with all this.
 
Not far from Heathrow, you did say you were after a smaller dish, though there is detail out there the front end electronics and feed have to be top quality to get anything beyond the basic signal.


Let others confirm if this is the case first before looking at costs, though what approximate budget are you thinking of ?
 
Channel Hopper said:

G4NNS - Amateur Radio Astronomy with the Hydrogen Line Observing Group

Amateur Radio Astronomy from G4NNS, Redenham
brcg4nns.org
Click to expand...
Boy...I wish I still had the mobility and brain power to go out and revamp the old dish, but after looking at the info on that web site I think the problem I had with the very low signals was the fact that the dish I have is a mesh type and not a full solid type of dish.

Oh well it was fun back then tiring to look for stuff in that part of the spectrum.
 
Terryl said:
Boy...I wish I still had the mobility and brain power to go out and revamp the old dish, but after looking at the info on that web site I think the problem I had with the very low signals was the fact that the dish I have is a mesh type and not a full solid type of dish.

Oh well it was fun back then tiring to look for stuff in that part of the spectrum.
Click to expand...
Yes. I think there's a maximum mesh size dependent on the frequency. I'm sure someone will know the details. I guess this could be the reason for it not working.
 
Channel Hopper said:
Not far from Heathrow, you did say you were after a smaller dish, though there is detail out there the front end electronics and feed have to be top quality to get anything beyond the basic signal.


Let others confirm if this is the case first before looking at costs, though what approximate budget are you thinking of ?
Click to expand...
It's probably best to count me out, but thanks for offering.
 
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