Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
Just a guess, but I bet the dish is made of some non-conductive material such as fiberglass and therefore the dish requires the 'wind around cable' to act as the actual reflector material for the RF signal.
My best guess is that the cable is what is known as a "trace heater" which is used in winter to prevent a layer of snow and ice forming on the surface of the parabola.
Snow and ice would severely affect the performance of the antenna.
I'm going to go with the 'heater' idea. A spiral wound conductor like that doesn't make sense for a reflector, a fiberglass dish would use a metal screen as a framework which would act as the reflector. And not even as a signal attenuator the snow and ice may easily cause the dish to collapse from weight depending on it's orientation an environment. We have had multiple 'ice' storms in our area in the last 15 years which have thinned down the weak tree and inadequately supported dish population quiet a bit =) I'm guessing this is in a location where cooling/heating cycles lend themselves to ice buildup.
My best guess is that the cable is what is known as a "trace heater" which is used in winter to prevent a layer of snow and ice forming on the surface of the parabola.
Snow and ice would severely affect the performance of the antenna.
Now I look again at the photo, there are two spirals, one which goes all the way to the outer edge of the dish, and another which only goes about on third of the way out.
If you look carefully at the centre of the dish you will see what appears to be a black "wire" coming from under the silver sticky tape. These two wires (the heater cable) appear to join together and then one cable, presumably the power feed, drops vertically from the centre of the dish and is then tywrapped on to the support structure.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
