Reverse engineering of Ku band satellite dish as wireless antenna

[alawodes]

Pls, the project involves development of antenna with improvised can feedhorn as a powerful 802.11 antenna for transceiving wireless signal from a long distance base station.

i need the circuit and block diagrams of the antenna as well as detailed explanation on the project.

i will be very grateful if the request is granted to time.

thanks

 

[Papabravo]

Are you trying to reverse engineer an existing product to improve its range, or do you have the resources to start from scratch and design something that meets your requirements. Current technologies for 802.11 appear to be good for maybe a few hundred feet. If you want to go further I think you might be into some real money for a solution.

FYI Ku Band is 11.7 to 12.7 GHz. for the downlink and 14.0 to 14.5 GHz. for the uplink. The antennas appear to be directional. 802.11 frequencies are in the 2.4 GHz. band and the antennas are short vertical whips with omnidirectional coverage.

You might start by stating the requirements. Increasing range at microwave frequencies is a tricky business. You can increase the power output, each doubling of the power gets you 3 dB. At some point atmospheric humidity will get you. I think the humidity in your area is pretty severe, being close to the equator and all. You can make the beam width narrower but then you have to aim the Tx and Rx antennas at each other with great precision. You can put the antenna up higher for greater coverage. What do you think is possible, and what do you have in mind?

 

[alawodes]

RE: Reverse engineering of Ku band satellite as wireless antenna.

Thanks for timely reply to my request.

The project is all about reversing the engineering of Ku band satellite that is removing the LNB and building of an antenna with improved can feedhorn as a powerful 802.11 antenna for transceiving(receiving and transmitting) wireless signal.

The problem i'm having is how to develop the antenna.

I'll be happy if I can get materials on how to realise the antenna.

Thanks.

 

[Papabravo]

If you can use the dish to propagate an 802.11 signal at 2.4 GHz then only another dish will be able to receive the signal because the beam width will be very narrow. How far away will the other dish be?

Try the following link

**broken link removed**

These guys claim 10 miles. I doubt you'll get those results in high humidity conditions.

 

[Arctic Fox]

Some links to Long-Distance WiFi information, mainly using old satellite dishes:
**broken link removed**

 

[alawodes]

Re: reverse engineering of Ku satellite.

Thanks sir.

i'll talk with you later.

 

[alawodes]

Thanks for your previous suggestion.

all i have to do concerning the project is building a cantenna that you suggest at the same frequency.i have same in mind but what is confusing me is the Ku band.

i'm ok for now the only thing is how to get the parts like n-female connector e.t.c.

another thing is i do not know if there is any relevant circuit and block diagrams for the project.

thanks, once again.

 

[justDIY]

you dont need a circuit, a diagram or the Ku band ... you're using the parabolic dish to collect and focus em radiation ... the wavelength of the radiation is not so important here (as long as the dish can reflect it, it will work as I understand things)

you need to discard the factory feed and build your own ... either a cantenna or a bi-quad works well, and you'll see fantastic range.

If you're working with a large primestar dish, you'll be better served by taking the mounting apart and inverting the dish, since the feed arm is offset, the focal point of the dish is not 90 deg perpendicular to the feed point ... inverting the dish will let you aim it easier at ground based locations, rather than off into space.

oh I should add ... to save yourself some expense and cable losses, get yourself a cheap-o USB wifi card and hack it open. then you can use a short piece (6") of cheap coax like RG6U (for cable tv with cable modem) to solder from the antenna connection on the wifi card directly to your active element (cut the trace leading to the pcb dipole). this eliminates expensive connectors and microwave cable, now you can use cheap usb cable (up to 6 meters (iirc) without a booster) to run the signal back to your computer.... taking this a step further, with some carefull crafting and trial-and-error, you could place the usb card dipole directly in the focal point of the dish ... problem here is the dipole radiates omnidirectionally, so only a small fraction of its energy gets collected by the dish ... thats why the cantenna or bi-quad make better feeds.

 

[Arctic Fox]

Or you could do what I've done; if you're needing to just recieve a signal from a distance...

I bought a USB wifi adapter and just hot-glued the whole thing to the existing factory-feed. Then I plugged in a 5-metre long USB extention and connected it to the computer. Have someone slowly move the dish around till you find the signal you want.