Reusing Old Satellite Dishes? 22
nlaporte asks: "My neighbor just threw out his old Primestar satellite dish and receiver. Thinking that I might be able to use it, I picked them up. As Primestar is defunct (aquired by DirecTV), I was wondering if anyone knew how (or knew of a Web site that told how) to reuse the old dish and/or reciever for receiving other satellite broadcasts, i.e. NASA TV or Voice of America, etc. What about using it for another pay satellite service? Is this dish I picked up worth keeping, or should I chuck it?" I hope there will be more uses for the glut of satellite dishes that have popped up all over America and the rest of the world...otherwise garbage dumps are going to get real interesting over the next few years.
Birdbath? (Score:1)
Re:USes for a dish (Score:1)
Excellent Planters (Score:1)
I had a three-meter dish that I dumped for one of the nifty 18-inch dishes. I sunk it in my back yard and filled it with potting soil. It's where I grow my strawberries. It keeps the weeds out and, once I put some down some edging, it looked good enough that the wife didn't complain.
When PrimeStar went out of business, I grabbed half a dozen dishes out of trash piles and turned them into planters in the front yard. It looks really nifty.
I tried to use some odd-ball dishes as cement forms to create stepping stones (the pointy end would go down, of course) but that didn't work too well. They aren't deep enough and the cement was too thin and kept cracking.
I'd like to find some more dishes. They really are pretty handy. As someone else noted, if you get the right shape, they make excellent sleds.
InitZero
Re:Wireless Networks?? (Score:1)
I dont think the FCC could say much about it either, because you not useing part of the electromagentic spectrum.
*bzzt* No. Microwaves are indeed electromagnetic radiation. They have very short wavelength (hence the term "micro" waves) and high frequency, but they're certainly radio waves.
Re:links (Score:1)
It it's
Re:links (Score:1)
If it's
I mean, check, double check...
Programmable satellite... (Score:1)
-Ben
probably compatible with other commercial systems (Score:1)
Ham Radio (Score:1)
Good luck.
Re:Wireless Networks?? (Score:1)
*bzzzt*
*bzzzzt*
I get debate points for typing *bzzzt*, right?
Wireless Networks?? (Score:1)
Re:USes for a dish (Score:1)
1. A stir fry dish
Of course, you could go the other way. Some friends of mine turned their unused wok into a satellite dish on their roof. It was only for a laugh because Waikato Uni [waikato.ac.nz] (which was next door) had put up another huge satellite dish for internet pointing almost directly at them. Presumably there was some geo-synchronous satellite just above the horizon.
Re:SETI at home (really) (Score:1)
(The SETI League Mini-Manual) [setileague.org]
It is time SETI faced a little free-market compet (Score:1)
I recommend we gather all these defunct dishes together to make some sort of " Geographically Distributed Wide Array Multi-Point Radio Telescope" or G.D.W.A.M.P.R.T. system (like they used in that one anime movie about the senetor and his high-tech crime-fighting secretary) we could use many open-source principles and a new day of peace and merriment would ensue.
It is time SETI faced a little free-market competition!
-=(V)0(V)0cr0(V)3=-
Doing the dishes... (Score:1)
I gave another one (three meter) away to a friend, who sunk it face-up in the back yard, filled it with water, installed a pump and made a fountain out of it.
Smaller dishes set on concrete blocks make pretty good livestock feeders
Great for snacking (Score:2)
Fill it with salsa, some giant corn chips...
SETI really at home? (Score:2)
USes for a dish (Score:2)
2. A hat
3. a frisbee
4. a very small boat for a very smooth sea
5. Turn it into a steel drum
Re:Excellent Planters (Score:3)
Furthermore, you have unwittingly given the strawberries a bully pulpit into the sky. By allowing them to send *their* messages out -- typically extremely simple messages, as far as we know -- many cultures out there are going to think that berries are the dominant earth culture. And when other berry cultures visit us, and see products like "Boo-Berry" and "Crunchberries", they'll be quite justified in wiping out all non-berry organisms on the planet.
Isn't it bad enough that we broadcast Tony Danza TV movies? Think of the consequences of your actions!
--
links (Score:3)
I thought I had some bookmarks on DIY sattelite stuff, but either a) I didn't or b) I just can't see them among the hundreds of othere.
So instead have a satellite links page, among the billions of links here there should be a site to suit:
http://members.tripod.com/~eld orado2000/catalog.html [tripod.com]
Primestar receiver useless (Score:3)
SETI at home (really) (Score:5)
http://www.setileague.org/ [setileague.org]
Hundreds of people are doing this already! They're already finding weird things they can't explain (usually secret satellites, planes and so on) with just a dish, some relatively cheap electronics and an old PC & sound card.
Imagine the kudos the next time someone starts boasting about how many blocks they do in a day... "Well, I've just been focusing on the waterhole frequencies in the vicinity of Proxima Centauri..."