Used a wok instead of a proper dish for 8 months what a joke

I spent almost a year trying to get a signal from that old DirecTV bird at 101 degrees west using a stainless steel wok. Thought I was being clever saving $40 on a real LNB bracket and just taping the feed horn to the handle. My buddy came over last Tuesday with his $30 solid dish from OfferUp and had a picture in 15 minutes. That's when I realized the wok's curve was totally wrong for focusing the signal. I was basically picking up noise from the neighbor's garage door opener. Now I'm kicking myself for all those weekends spent tweaking the angle on a kitchen pan. Anyone else try some dumb household object and waste months? What finally tipped you off?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron_mitchell1mo ago

Ha! I once used a colander as a WiFi antenna booster. Spent two weeks pointing it at the sky.

brianreed1mo ago

That reminds me of the time I taped a wire hanger to my router and hung it from the ceiling fan. Thought I was a genius for getting two extra bars in the kitchen. Colander is way more advanced, honestly. You probably looked like you were trying to summon aliens or something. I bet the neighbors thought you were running a secret space station out of your apartment.

riverh491mo ago

Yeah but @aaron_mitchell, pointing a colander at the sky sounds like you were trying to catch satellite signals or something. I get the idea though. The wire hanger trick worked for me until the fan wobbled and the whole thing came crashing down during dinner. That was awkward. I'd rather have a goofy colander setup than explain to the landlord why there's a tangled mess of metal and tape on the floor. At least with the colander you look like you're doing science, not panic-fixing your Netflix.