Repurposed Satellite Dish Antenna Captures Wi-Fi and Cell Phone Signals

Intro: Repurposed Satellite Dish Antenna Captures Wi-Fi and Cell Phone Signals

When I moved from San Antonio back to rural North Carolina, I found myself completely unable to get a wi-fi or cell phone signal where I lived. The only way for me to get a cell signal at all was to drive over a mile in either direction from where I liveed. I first thought my problem was my cell carrier. I decided to change carriers so I had several friends check out their signal strength while they were visiting me so I could better decide which carrier to go with. Of the three other major carriers we checked, not one could get a signal at my house. It was apparent that my problem was my location. I was at the bottom of a shallow valley. It was uphill in nearly any direction from there.

I had to find a solution. I checked into an external antenna for my cell phone but found they cost nearly $50.00 and there was some question about whether they actually work. I knew there had to be a better way. While working in my yard one afternoon I noticed an old satellite TV dish on top of a pole in my backyard. It had been left there by the previous residents. Suddenly a light bulb came on. I grabbed some wrenches, took down the dish and held my cell phone next to the antenna's horn and pointed the dish in various directions. I was amazed to find that I got full signal in one direction. I could not believe my eyes. I went from no signal to full signal and had not spent a dime or changed anything on my cell phone. Just to make sure I made a call using speaker phone and found that this thing truly did work.

The next test came when I took the assembly inside the house to try it. With aluminum siding on the house I have problems even getting a television signal using a rabbit ear antenna. To my surprise, I got two to three bars inside so long as I pointed the dish at a double window in my living room. I no longer missed calls and I didn't have to leave home to talk on my cell phone. Using a blue tooth headset really worked well. It isn't an ideal setup but it worked and it didn't cost me anything. It was also a great way to recycle that old satellite antenna that would have ended up in the trash otherwise.

I had a friend give me another old dish that I used for wi-fi. I mounted it on the pole the other dish came off of. After some tweaking I found several really strong wi-fi signals that I could not get without the dish thanks to some really great neighbors with unsecured networks. ; )

Biochemtronics

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STEP 1: Pointing the Dish Antenna at a Signal Source

You would think it would be simple to align a dish antenna with a signal source, but it isn't. Even trying to explain this without a lot of complicated math formulas is a bit difficult. The problem is that satellite dish antennas, like the one I use, are of the offset design. This means the dish doesn't "look" where it would seem to. In the graphic there is one line that shows the apparent view of the dish. That one comes right off the front of the dish. That is not where the dish is "looking" so don't try to use that to align the dish. If you do you won't get any signal. The other line shows the "actual view" of the dish. Notice this line is a bit offset from the center. This is the line you must point towards the signal source (wifi router or cell phone tower). Keep in mind that dish antennas are very directional. Even moving the dish an inch or two in either direction can make you go from no signal at all to five bars. Also, the further away the signal source is the more difficult the alignment will be. It is a lot easier to find your neighbor's wifi signal than it is to find a cell tower 3 miles away. You will need to play with the antenna alignment to find the signal and fine tune it for maximum signal. Patience is a must.

STEP 2: Fine Tuning the Dish Antenna

After my initial eureka moment, I started tweeking the antenna / cell phone assembly a little. First I held the cell phone in front of the dish's horn and turned around in the yard to see which direction I got the strongest signal from. When I found that sweet spot I held the cell phone against the horn while moving it up and down, left and right in front of the horn to see which position provided the strongest signal. For my phone I got the best signal with the bottom edge of the cell phone near the bottom of the horn. I also found that the signal was even stronger if I tilted the phone a little to the side.

STEP 3: Finishing Up

With that information I went in the house and made a small foam core holder for the cell phone and used duct tape to attach it to the dish's horn. I kept the front of the holder pretty short so I could still access the buttons to dial a number. I sat the whole assembly on top of an old radio cabinet and pointed the dish at the double windows in my living room. Now I never miss a phone call.

STEP 4: Taking It Further

If for some reason (like you live in the mountains) and you need to mount the antenna booster outside to get a signal, it would be a simple matter to weather proof the cell phone with a plastic sandwich container. You could still use a bluetooth headset to receive your calls.

Also, I found that this setup works even better with Wi-Fi. Just use one of those little USB WiFi antennas with a USB extension cord. Place the USB antenna in front of the horn like I did with the cell phone, tweek the position, and then mount it using duct tape and some plastic to weatherproof it. Again I went from no signal to a usable signal.

Hopefully someone else can benefit from this instructable as I have. Best of luck with all of your projects.

Biochemtronics

Comments

[Pendragon8000]

Very cool. I've been thinging about this for a while. There's a bunch of old Foxtel dishes in this area.

[ricwilliam]

Why are you lying?
TV satellites don't operate with the same frequency as cellphone.

[biochemtronics]

ricwilliam:

It is obvious you do not understand the purpose and function of a dish. A dish is not an antenna. It is a parabolic reflector that focuses radio signals from a large area (the surface of the dish) to a small area (the feed horn). In this case an antenna is placed where the satellite signal feed antenna in the horn would normally be. The metal dish reflects signals onto the antenna placed at the focal point of the dish giving you a much stronger signal. It is a passive amplifier. It doesn't matter if it is a television, shortwave, WIFI, AM, FM, telephone or any other signal.

A parabolic dish can also focus and amplify sound to a microphone placed where the feed horn's antenna normally is. This allows you to hear sounds very clearly from a great distance. Build one and you can spy on neighbors using a dish and microphone.

A dish that is reflective (like a mirror) will reflect light to a focal point much like a magnifying lens does. When pointed at the sun, the dish could generate very high temperatures at the focal point. I have even seen a steam boiler made from a dish.

In this case the basic concept is this. The dish will reflect any signal to an antenna thereby amplifying the signal. Just remember that the dish must be pointed at the transmitter.

Using words like "lying" is very offensive and is a violation of the "be nice" policy here at Instructables. Your account or ability to make comments could be suspended because of you using such language. If you disagree with the author of a project you need to be nice and not use such offensive language.

I suggest you study the Wiki article on parabolic reflectors to gain an understanding of exactly how they work with light, sound, and radio signals. I have included a link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_reflector

If I can help you in any way please to not hesitate to ask.

Most sincerly,

Randy

[JasonT200]

Well said and 100% correct.

[brian.furches.3]

You never mentioned your carrier. I live in appalacian mountains of east Tn about 25 miles from NC state line in rural area also and here, Verizon(cdma) rules the rural areas while att, tmobile(gsm) is the worst.

[Lowell60]

I'm on the north side of Cherokee Lake and have Metro by Tmobile...I got bars but slow as molasses...

[Son_of_Elohim]

May be this is a repeat comment, IDK & no time to read 107 other comments.
3 items: We have bought 8 amplifier or LTE router systems but none received better than any of 4 phones we have. So now we have a phone as a dedicated wifi hot spot & it serves hearing aids on bluetooth. Every phone we have does better than the $180 LTE router did mounted 30' above ground. No, I do not yet put phones up the 30' pole but I may.
Next - the phone on dish antenna outdoors can be covered with a glass jar for weather protection & some cooling air flow.
Last - try removing the feed horn/LNB from the arm, so phone can be 1 to 3" farther from center of dish antenna. You may gain more signal.

[RobKrueger66]

Would it be possible to use the cable to bring the signal to and inside antenna

[mr5753001]

Why are cellphone signal boosters so expensive the components to build them come from China the mark up is crazy

[MrFoutch]

what is this satellite dish "horn" that you speak of. The part that isn't the actual dish, I assume?

[biochemtronics]

The horn is the part on the end of the arm attached to the dish. I have my cell phone taped to it in the main picture. It is actually a microwave antenna and is called a horn because under the white plastic cover it small metal horn that focuses the radio signal bouncing off of the dish onto the antenna wire inside it. In this application the dish reflects the radio signals to the cell phone antenna which is fastened in front of the microwave horn. The horn serves no purpose in this application except to allow proper placement of the cell phone antenna (which is built in.)

[Etnaaf]

i have a different type of dish one of the ones from hacking software aka the parablic type htat has like a 35 mi range for hacking wifi

id like to use this to boost m wifi from my cell phone
(ok i live in the middle of NO WHERE no ppl houses or towns for miles in all directions i only have 4g cell phone internet but i get SHIT signal out here .3 down .1 up and i get dc every 2 min .. annoying after the first hr or so id love to know a good way to plug a cell phone into this or a normal dish attenna and then be able to get my signal up i already pa for everything just not being allowed to use it ;/

conttact me directly at etnaaflonne123@gmail woulda pls could use your help or anybody with dish knowledge (by the way im super poor i cant buy new things i basically only get this cuz its paid for for me so dont ask me to buy new stuff)

[PratikY1]

Hiii

[Had hoosaini]

Can it work in some valleys that there is no mobile antenna?
We must go to to top of the mountain to get signal

[adamf663]

Next -- use an lna and cable. It won't look nearly as stupid and you'll be able to use the phone without a damn dish taped to it.

[M.J2]

By "Ina" what exactly do you mean, none of these seem relevant:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INA

[goahunter]

I'm pretty sure he's say LNA which is a low noise amplifier.

[spark master]

so you stick you head in the dish to use the phone?

[biochemtronics]

No you don't have to stick your head in the dish to talk on the phone. Ever heard of a speaker phone or Bluetooth.

[Ajamesf89]

Sorry to reopen a question on an older thread but I had some questions. I live in the country, there is an old satellite in the yard on the farm we purchased. For the wifi side of things you would just plug in the coax cable to the router correct? It has a LNF on it right now. Would i need to take that off? Then I could point it and see if there are any unsecured networks near me?

The cell phone side I would just stand near it and move it around until I got something. There is a signal less than a half mile away, the problem Is I am surrounded by trees as I am in a national Forest. Do you think the old dish TV satellite could maybe pick up something without any modifications?