[amsat-bb] Re: no patches for offset dishes!!

["Bill Acito" <w1pa@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>A couple of quick comments.  I suspect that you are right about center
fed
>dishes being cheaper in Europe and maybe Asia.  Except for 7-12 foot
"BUDS"
>that is NOT the case in North America.

>I am a big fan of using what you can for cheap.  Primestar dishes here
are
>relatively cheap on e-bay and free if you can scrounge one (I did!) and
make
>a whopping good AO-40 antenna for almost nothing.

>This is okay even if it is not optimum.

Yep, I agree with Fred. I went "looking" on-line yesterday for center
fed dishes, and they (excluding BUD's) are tough to come by in surplus
in the US. There is a ton of offset dishes available surplus, or
reasonably priced new for the DSS and Telstar 5 market. 18", 24" 30" and
35". I found a source for
a 30" Wineguard, $70 shipped.

I currently have a helix on my Primestar dish, but would rather use a
patch
(I like the smaller profile, and the structural integrity of the patch
versus
the coil of tubing.... especially since most of my operation is
portable:

http://webpages.charter.net/acito/dishandboom.jpg

What about a scalar ring/cup to narrow the illumination of the patch
against these 0.6 and 0.7 f/d offset dishes? Or am I wasting  signal?
Can I case my helix in gray PVC without a noticeable loss of gain to get
the
structural integrity back?

I found a nice stainless, flat-bottom, 2-cup measuring cup in a discount
store the other day --- it would make a nice scalar cup for a patch...
:-)

Bill
W1PA

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