Small TV Dish Modified For HRPT Weather Satellites - Trash Antenna Build w Beer Cans & Duct Tape! 

One man's trash is a another man's RU-vid channel. Here's to approaching 200k subs!

Next project: the very small array... a homemade replica of the very large array using TV dishes! 😀 Thanks for this video - it was really interesting.

You would be like...the best neighbor ever, lol

The best tutorial ever see un cut normal no fancy stuff just junk and a little bit of of talent

Just to show my kids how to get into trouble, we took an old sat dish like that one and coated it with foil tape. Then cooked a few hotdogs! 😀 I then carelessly put it away in a "safe place" only to come back in a couple of hours to find it had burned the leg off a wood patio chair!!!! 🤣

This continues to be one of the most fun channels on RU-vid.

Don't forget that the gain of a dish antenna is proportional not just to its geometric size, but also wavelength. NOAA HRPT birds use frequencies whose wavelength is 8 times larger (ish) compared to the Ku-band SATTV sats. So, to produce similar gain, you need a much larger dish.

"This is just a portable satellite dish like you might take camping to hack some free tv or watch some football." That vibe is why I subscribed to this channel.

You remind me of a friend who was installing satellite dishes in the Solomon Islands 20 years ago - point the dish in the general direction of the geostationary bird, then move the dish around until the spectrum analyser peaked!

A tip for anyone wanting to straighten out copper wire: put a wooden dowel or broomstick in the vice, pass the wire behind it and hold each end, then pull it tight and pull it back and forth in a sawing motion (like you'd do with one of those roll up wire camping saws). If the copper's really thick or stubborn, you can heat it to red hot with a blowtorch and let it cool down again before straightening it, copper "work hardens", so the more it's bent the harder it gets - the heating & cooling reverses this softens it up again.

"When in doubt, use more duct tape" Yup! You're the Red Green of Radio :D

Quick hack: To straighten copper wire, put one end in the vice and the other end in the chuck of a drill. Pull on the wire with the drill and twist it shortly

That small dish actually worked out better than I would have thought. Consider me pleasantly surprised...

This man speaks and all I can get is "turbo encabulator" mumbo jumbo. Great channel though.

Red Green would be proud of your handyman skills!

This was very helpful. As you know I just started playing with this stuff. I know the LNB on my too small dish is circularly polarized, I had know idea they were handed as well. I imagine that detail alone would keep me from being successful. Lol 👍

To straighten copper wire; affix one end to a bench or vise and hold the other end taut with vise grips or pliers and use a hammer to tap the pliers in the pulling direction. It will even change sound when it's straight

When in doubt, use more duct tape. The first law of DIY! Thanks for again a great video. I love all your experiments. A simple trick to straighten out copper wire is to put one end in a vice and the other end into a handheld drill. Then pull the trigger on slow speed while keeping tension. Works all the time.

Very nice image from a bunch of scrap parts! I'm still having issues with getting NOAA VHF to work well. I'm playing with a V di-pole (old tv rabbit ears) and honestly I get a better results using my bearcat scanner with a rubber duck and recording the audio on my phone. It's fun trying tho.

You probably already know this, but you can use the lower arm as a sight. You can look down the center like a telescope, that will line you right up.

Great stuff! It's important to also important to note the difference between older round(ish) single-LNB DirecTV/Dish network dishes and the later oval dual- (triple-?) LNB dishes. I've had better luck rigging SDR dongles to the older round dishes. Don't let the YT antenna snobs dissuade you from experimenting, there's nothing to lose but time and you always learn more from failure than success!

In the event of nuclear holocaust I want to live near Gabe as I know he will have something in his garage that will save us.. Joking aside, this was a brilliant video, I really enjoyed it and loved the humour, showing improvements with adjustments the overall end result - top work !!

Three cheers for the Spotted Cow!

once again, beer cans and duct tape saves the day!

Great video. It's always fun to try and get weather data. So much cool stuff to browse through.

I appreciate the how-to nature of these videos because I keep putting off actually doing something more with my SDRs than fiddling with stuff I can pick up with a dipole (Hospital paging signals are my current fascination). And one of these days I'll catch a video that finally gets me off my butt to find/buy the parts to make a fancier antenna or dish setup. And I won't have to look up tutorials, I'll just have to rewatch the video!

Thats incredible! What an amazing proof of concept

I just love your channel! You are living my dream :D Good Job on these awesome images!

Like my granddad always said: "If it can't be fixed with duct tape, zip ties, PVC pipe (ABS), hot melt glue, copper wire, a dremel tool, and maybe a little JB Weld.... it can't BE fixed." Or something like that...

You're going to need one more dish and at least six more laptops to reach the level of NEIL BREEN

I find they are useful for boosting 2.5 and 5ghz wifi signals. For a while I had one in my chair with the antenna rigged up in the center and it was really fast actually.

"When in doubt, use more duct tape." Gotta remember that

RX comms device is Kerbal approved. Certificate in the mail.

Joining you tonight with the spotted cow.

ur doing fine, bro. Enjoying the videos!

You can set your phone to vertical only mode to avoid rotating the screen.

my rtl sdr is arriving the next week !

Brilliant vid 👏 I'm always blown away how you can cobble together old stuff and get some pretty good output ✅️ you're awesome 👏

you can get bigger dishes pretty easily - you may not need them for this application but for other radio projects they rule - bigger is better

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Okaaaaaay.... so we know how many takes it takes you to get it on film..... how many beers 🍻 did you go through to get us the perfect 👌 take

"Expertly handcrafted", just like "expertly edited in Ms paint"

If you have a bench mounted vice, you can straighten copper by just stretching it a tiny bit. Makes it far easier to work with if it's already been in a coil. Not ideal with enamel + HV, but for antenna elements, makes things heaps easier.

You're a genius

😊 yeah I see already some folks already said... Establish array with smaller sats and you can do quite a bit

I'm amazed at the results! Not bad at all... good job!

is that spotted cow I see? LOVE IT! now I know what to do with my 'dead soldiers' lol

In the zombie apocalypse I’m headed to your house man.

GREAT! Thank you...more please...take care

Good job Thanks 😊

Change the continuous duct-tape wrap to a few support tabs here and there. Duct tape isn't terribly RF transparent, because it's metallized to a certain extent. The best helical feeds have almost no support scaffold in the middle -- because said scaffold will change the dielectric constant inside the helix. In your case, that's not likely the biggest issue, but something to keep in mind. I'd absolutely change the duct-tape "wrap" though... You know eventually, you'll morph into a biological dish mount, with the TLEs in your head, and the ability to do coordinate conversions without computer assistance :)

5:23 print it on a angle with scaffolding.

I need to send you a "care" package of bits of type-F "plumbing" that's useful in projects like this. They're larger and more robust for things like supporting helices, and despite their 75ohm impedance, can be used in receiver systems without much of an issue. Type-F to SMA are readily available. I got sold on type-F for certain things years and years ago. Partially because type-F plumbing bits were readily available at the local Home Depot, etc. I once cobbled together the feed-probe for a hydrogen-line circular waveguide feed using a type-F female-to-female connector, with a paperclip as the probe--jammed into the socket, and liberally treated with hot melt glue. It lasted literally for years!

5:20 good call! I don't have one.

your awesome luv your videos good stuff and big thumbs up 👍😃👍

Awesome work

Great vid!! I would of thought that the focal point would've been straight up from the center of the parabola of the dish, to capture as much of the weak signal as possible.

Mmmm, Minty.

love it thanks

2 or 3 more beers and your hand tracking will get better ;o)

Not related to the video, but the mainstreaming of Satelite tech has always made me laugh when you consider the moment anyone tries to mainstream it, new tech comes in and eats their lunch. Satellite TV came in, and then cable right after it. Satellite phones started to hit the market, then cell phones right after. Even Satellite Radio came in right before podcasts and the I-Pod. Its like you can tell when a new Paradigm is about to hit in tech as soon as Satellites get involved.

I think the junk you have laying around is different to the junk i have laying around😂

If you need a cross on the end of the screwdriver handle to show where to belt it try glasses.

I was just thinking about you while trying to troubleshoot an electric weed whacker that runs then stops...."what would Gabe do?" 😆

The result is quite impressive, considering it's such a small satellite dish and operated by hand. The advantage of this satellite dish is that it's easily transportable, making it very suitable for mobile use. Have you already experimented with Amazon Sidewalk in the 900 MHz band? It's included in every Alexa Echo and is widespread in America. The device is equipped with an LLCC62 chip, which is responsible for LoRa.

I'd like to try printing that .stl on my Ender 3 - not the fancy new ones, but a carefully modified OG. I actually have 2 printers and the Ender 3 (currently with an MKS Gen L board using A4988 steppers) is about to get a 32 bit upgrade with 2130 SPI steppers. After that, Marlin 2.0.

alright since the theme of "sat dish from anything" seems pretty strong on this channel i challenge you to 3d print one

Hey Gabe, how does it feel to be the guinea pig, or lab rat? LOL Great job and video.

13:58 there is a setting in Android to lock screen rotation, if you drag down the setting menu from the top you can disable auto Rotate and lock the phone to portrait. this might help. update, im assuming you are using an Android phone, there maybe a similar option on Apple devices.

get a tracker on it and your good

something I would like to see if you can do, is recreate the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array at say 1/100th scale? 1/1000th? I dunno, but using the same frequency range (if possible) spread out over the same number of antennas like the one you have here (if possible) over the same scaled distance in surface area (if possible) You'd be the greatest citizen scientist ever! And if you put out the CALL to all of us, I'm sure there are a lot of us that have these dishes either laying around, or KNOW someone with a dish or two.

Very Nice! Would the combination of different metals in the antenna -- aluminum to nickle/lead solder to copper generate a current that would produce noise?

eeh unlisted but available to everyone since not limited to members only

Wow your nice THAT SAT IS THAT doomsday Zombi hunter Sat

I have seen others in my part of the world use that circular feed in a can feed horn i am not sure but i would think the can around it would bounce the rf missed by the feed to it ? Must be the reason for a normal cantenna....BTW great video don't worry repeating stuff all helpful ! love the satellite dish videos

1:18 2 seconds later...🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Just on quick question to ponder - is the ABS colored black with graphite? Could that be affecting the results that you are seeing? Maybe white ABS pipe may be better? Just a thought.

Are we ever gonna ask why he has the Wolverine going on with his facial hair?

I took apart an old RV dish and have aimed it at galaxy 19 to try to get free tv. Nothing is working, I built my own L band LMB and it still isn’t working. I would like to know if you could help me with what I can do to get free TV from Galaxy 19. Edit: I got it to work.(your videos are what helped me) Thank you!😃😃😃

Now can you do it with one of the motorized tailgator dishes?

Watching your manual tracking by hand here and in another video and seeing you made the automatic AZ EL mount tracking using Arduino as the brains to control the motor board watching other peoples go's at this it came to me i think there should be a in between system cutting out the computer control altogether . I noticed the Arduino system tracking you have to really be there any way to make sure its working safely and such ....So the idea coming together now as i am building is the motor control is as in your system either the relay board or transistor version controlled both by optocouplers (led that switch an optotransistor on) so same as your system unchanged , now i have made my idea a step above hand control and simple on off switching circuit for motor control i can either hook up an Arduino idea as yours later on if i feel like it or just connect to the motor board opto couplers up to my idea this board (555 dumb Tracking board MK1 ) is controlled by 2 555 timers for AZ EL timing this is then fed to 2 4017s the first and the last outputs fed to 2 555s hooked up as bistable's these are then fed to those motor board opto couplers the bistables will stay on for the time i have set on the Astable 555s ...i want to set the system up so the elevation gos for about 15 mIn once speed is adjusted no need to worry till end of tracking same gos for the the AZ can be set by what is expected in its sky position by seeing the pass on your satellite tracking program ..you can be the brains and seeing the signal levels on sdr sharp or what ever you can do some tweaking to speed on elevation i think the AZ control which i feel would not have to be adjusted once set but can be timed to move if need be .....I have built the board timing is great ...i really hate computers and this is a simple way to automate the motor control without Hal from 2001 space odyssey taking control ....; 0 ) you are still in control and can be built from junk box parts ( don't buy new build from junk ! ) Hard explaining every thing with out plans but if you know what the bits do its very simple to work it out . SO 2 555 ics hooked up as simple astable timers fed to 2 4017 decade counters the first and last of its outputs fed to the set reset of the 2 bistable 555 ics ..i have mounted leds so you can see all the switching going on . more than one way to do all this you could use a 4060 and have the first 2 parts of the idea in same ic as in the astables and decade counters all in the same ic just what you have handy for the idea .

Can you try with just pointing the element is that any worse .. ovy change the polarisation

Can you see the northern lights. Can you got pictures of them from where you are. Do they affect the rf spectrum as seen on SDR?

Not trying to be a downer but do you have a plans for all this stuff you got when you pass hopefully it can go to someone can enjoy the fun you do every day with is id hate to see all that equipment get throw out and also hope you live a very long life my friend. We are NERDS DEEP DOWN thanks. A+ content love it

So what can I use the lnb from the old direct tv dishes for? Anything good?

I only make my antennas out of Spotted Cow Cans…….

What about using one to make a FREE WIFI booster

NFL Sunday Ticket is no longer on DirecTV.

What if you took 2 or 3 small dish antennas and aimed them and linked them all together for a stronger signal? Would that work?

Hey, what kind of 3D printer do you have?

What licensing is required to hop into this?

I've got a discarded vintage full size solid, as opposed to mesh, dish. can it be modified to a useful purpose like weather monitoring?

Is that filter absolutely necessary or could you filter the signal with software instead?

Do you know which weather satellite can I track in Brazil? Which filter should I need Thank you

What is a ruff top dish??

The rtl-sdr can go to a couple Ghz. How you receive 12 Ghz with this device? Thank you

As always, @saveitforparts nailing it with the titles, read it, INSTA-CLICK!

... мужик, черная труба с углеродом, " радио не прозрачна "

Sorry but I like the non satellite content, where are your boats and what not?

5:28 Don't doubt yourself, 3D printers are a lot more common than you think. And they are so cheap Nowadays, perhaps it's time for you to upgrade. I was excited until you gave up so quickly.