HDTv Antenna on a Direct TV mount.

Step 4 Final product

The only thing left was setting the direction of the antenna to get a better reception, I'm Berkeley Ca, and facing the antenna to the southwest works better for most of the channels. from almost 30 channels, some with a weak or none signal, it went up to almost 40 with noticeable improvement and quite happy that I don't need an antenna in the living room anymore.

Comments

[Dr. dB]

Great way to recycle those old dishes!

Not sure why the chickenwire backplane would ever be needed, unless it's to increase the overall dimensions of the reflector - although these dishes appear to be made strictly of fibreglass or other plastics, they are still required to be inherently RF-reflective, and, therefore, metallic in some regard, or they wouldn't work at all...

Most are built using one of these methods:

1. "DIY screen" - aluminim sheet is punched with a gazillion tiny holes, making a "screen" of it, then it's stamped into a semiparabolic shape and powder-coated.

2. wire-mesh "sandwich" on fibreglass "bread" - pre-made metallic screening or "wire cloth" is laminated with fibreglass and resins and stamped into a semiparabolic shape.

3. "soup mix" - metal powder is blended directly into the resins, resulting in a conductive plastic, which is then molded or stamped, etc....

[timalmond]

These Dish's are made of very thin steel and painted grey to reflect satellite signal from plate onto eye of satellite dish.

[arte.sano]

good to know, I can get rid off the ugly chicken wire then!,
thanks

[Dr. dB]

It's at least worth a try, since, as simple and elegant as your construction is, it shouldn't be much hassle to put back if reception goes in the dumper without it. 

This assumes that, as froggyman mentioned, there's no electrical connection between the "screen" and the pickup elements. If such a connection WERE needed, you'd need the chicken wire, after all, as it can be a considerable challenge getting at the conductive part(s) of the dish's own architecture.

I also wondered:

Would a single "V", standing-off the dish at the same "focal point" where the original LNB pickup was hung, perhaps gain enough from the dish's parabolic properties to make up for the fewer elements? Or would so few "sticks" compromise the bandwidth beyond usefulness?

[brandt11]

what kind of wire did you use for the connection between the v's. was it electrical wire or coaxial wire? how did you connect it to the cable that ran into your living room?

[froggyman]

you use a regular electric with (like romex) to connect the V's, then you get a 300Ohm to 75 ohm coaxial transformer availiable here. For that you can simply cut off the 2 little conncetors, strip the wire about an inch, and connect it to the electrical wire, by twisting them together and adding a little solder for added strength then cover in electrical tape.

You can then connect it to your TV through a regular coaxial wire!

[arte.sano]

the wire came from a lamp, but any wire will do the work, is better to use an Isolated wires, Romex will work also. As I mention in my post above: "...I build the antenna but and I use an old Direct TV dish mounted in my garage (I don't have the subscription and I don't want too), the dish has been in my place since I move, and the best thing, it's wired to my living room." hope it helps.

[brandt11]

thanks

[michaeloshman]

ok let me ask you this..it the v's touching the chichen wire or is the screen totally indepandant from the v's

[froggyman]

the screen is independent from the the V's, it just acts like a "filter" and sometimes isnt needed