Turning Sky Satellite Dish Into Parabolic Wireless Receiver

edited August 2012 in Tech & Games
Alright, so on the side of our house is one of these babies...

sky%20satellite%20dish.jpg

It's a satellite dish for Sky TV that we've had for at least 10 years. We recently got rid of our subscription to the satellite TV service and have settled for Freeview, so we have no need for the dish anymore. However, I was thinking - instead of getting rid of the dish, would I be able to take it off the side of the house, stick it on a tripod and SOMEHOW hook it up to my Alfa wireless adapter (which looks like this);

Alfa_AWUS036H.jpg

I just want a crazy fucking range so I can pick up many more wireless networks without any problems. So, IS IT POSSIBLE? Because if it is, then I'm definitely doing it.

Comments

  • DfgDfg Admin
    edited August 2012
    Yes and no.
    I am extremely sleepy right now but you can place it in the middle and see what happens.
  • angryonionangryonion Just some guy
    edited August 2012
    Interesting idea!!
    Give a whirl and see what happens and let us know.
    I have an old dish network dish that I just could not throw away, or have a good reason to keep so this just might be justification for keeping that thing.
    Once you get a signal you could play with some linux and probe your neighbors :).
  • DaktologistDaktologist Global Moderator
    edited August 2012
    It can be done. I read about it somewhere a while back. Search for "biquad antenna", its a fairly common antenna design for WiFi dish antennas.
  • SlartibartfastSlartibartfast Global Moderator -__-
    edited August 2012
    It's going to be annoyingly fidgety.

    http://hak5.org/episodes/hak5-1121

    There's also something call a wok antenna, invented by the kiwi's (They're pretty good with the wireless stuff for some reason..). The wok is parabolic, like your dish.
  • SlartibartfastSlartibartfast Global Moderator -__-
    edited August 2012
    You might find it more interesting to point it around at satellites and check out the oddball TV channels and government propaganda (I regularly watch VOA - the US propaganda arm)
  • edited August 2012
    You might find it more interesting to point it around at satellites and check out the oddball TV channels and government propaganda (I regularly watch VOA - the US propaganda arm)

    And how can I get this to work? I know nothing about this kind of thing, so how do I go about hooking it up to my TV etc?
  • bornkillerbornkiller Administrator In your girlfriends snatch
    edited August 2012
  • DaktologistDaktologist Global Moderator
    edited August 2012
    ^Fucking this. I have the materials for one but haven't bothered building it. Maybe one day.
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