Hacking Portable Satellite Dish For More Space Experiments

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This was a project to modify a Winegard Carryout satellite antenna into a microwave imager and miniature radio telescope. It's similar to my prior project with a Dish Tailgater antenna ( • Seeing Satellites with DIY Microwave ... ) • I used a string of serial cable adapters to get a console on the Carryout dish brain, then I could control it with a Python program. The dish moves through a specified angle and elevation range and takes a signal reading at each position. These can be combined into an image of the sky where each pixel is a radio signal. Then you can see things like satellites and radiation patterns. • The prior version only used the onboard Ku-band receiver on the dish. This version replaces the LNB with an RTL-SDR (Software-defined radio) and L-band antenna. Other radio bands could be used, but microwave probably works the best. • I'd like to turn this into a Wifi imager eventually. I did some brief experiments with Wifi (S-band) using a downconverter, but I didn't get very far with that. • My best images so far include an Inmarsat geostationary satellite, navigation satellites, and Iridium comm satellites. All of these can be imaged with the dish, although they appear a little different due to the relative speed of the dish and the satellite! For example, Iridium showed up as one long streak (kind of like a time exposure picture). GPS / Gallileo / Beidou showed up as many small points on an orbital track. Inmarsat showed up as fixed a point source in the sky. • I have a writeup on my website with more information about this project here: https://saveitforparts.wordpress.com/... • My code is available on Github here: https://github.com/saveitforparts/Car... • You will need an RS-232 to RS-485 adapter. I used this one: • https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CXY9S6M?... • Used satellite antennas like this often show up on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and other used sites. They're worth about $25-$50USD. Sometimes people ask more, but I just wait until they go unsold for a month and the price drops, or wait for someone else to list one cheaper. • Saveitforparts t-shirts and other merch at https://saveitforparts.myspreadshop.com/ • Join this channel to get access to perks: • / @saveitforparts • Or support me via Patreon at / saveitforparts • Check out gadgets and devices I like at https://www.amazon.com/shop/saveitfor...

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