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Talked to an older ham radio guy at breakfast and it got me thinking about dish design
I was at a diner in Tucson last Saturday and this retired engineer saw my notebook with satellite frequency scribbles. He said I was overthinking the reflector shape and that a simple offset feed works better for most free signals than those fancy prime focus builds. He pulled out a napkin and drew what he called a "cheap pizza pan setup" that he used back in the 80s to catch NASA weather satellites. Now I'm wondering if I've been making this too complicated... has anyone else gone simple and seen better results?
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lily571mo ago
Listen to @paulw53, he's right on the money with that flat pizza pan idea. I've built a couple of those myself and they pull in GOES weather sats just fine for basic images and data. The key is making SURE your LNB arm is rigid enough so it doesn't wobble in a breeze, otherwise you'll lose the signal fast. Spend your time on getting the focal point dead on instead of worrying about fancy curves, the margin for error is wider than people think. Keep it simple and you'll be surprised what comes in.
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paulw531mo ago
Go flat and cheap. A pizza pan with a simple LNB arm works fine for most weather sats.
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