# good use for old Sat dishes



## Concerned_ Citizen (Jan 20, 2010)

Hey yall, so i have 3 sat dishes on my roof that i do not plan to use for the intended purposes.....TV......i want them down but do not wan tto throw them away......anyone have any bright ideas on what to use them for?


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

Concerned_ Citizen said:


> Hey yall, so i have 3 sat dishes on my roof that i do not plan to use for the intended purposes.....TV......i want them down but do not wan to throw them away......anyone have any bright ideas on what to use them for?


:scratch parabolic reflector for a solar still or a (very) small stirling engine/ electrical generator? :dunno:


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

I have a small one in my yard from when we changed satellite TV providers. Just seems too good to throw away.


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## vn6869 (May 5, 2010)

Jason said:


> I have a small one in my yard from when we changed satellite TV providers. Just seems too good to throw away.


Agreed sure would like to do something with it.


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## nj_m715 (Oct 31, 2008)

Blob said it. Solar. I've seen 'em lined with mirrors and used as reflectors or lined with black poly pipe and used to heat water. Of course you don't really NEED the dish for hot water. A coil of pipe works just as well. I think they just used it as a platform for he collector.


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## sunny (Dec 26, 2010)

I wish I could find one of the old 6 foot ones. My dad used one as a rain water collector. He was easily able to fill up 300 gallons in 6 50 gallon barrels every winter. He had it set up to a drip system to his berry bushes. Never had to water them during the summer. With the barrels ahead and the rain during the summer it was never empty.
I would love to have a set up like it to help water my livestock.


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## azurevirus (Jan 20, 2009)

ummmm ..flower/veggie planter? :dunno:


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

You could plug the center hole and use them in a row near the pond and put a small pump in the pond and you got a fancy smancy waterfall!


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## sinbad (Oct 27, 2009)




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## rhrobert (Apr 27, 2009)

Satdish, usb cable, and usb wifi wll let you grab a signal from a long way away...


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## Concerned_ Citizen (Jan 20, 2010)

Sinbad, thanks for the links!

RH, can you point me towards some additional info on that? Definitely peaked my interest


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## rhrobert (Apr 27, 2009)

Concerned_ Citizen said:


> Sinbad, thanks for the links!
> 
> RH, can you point me towards some additional info on that? Definitely peaked my interest


Sure, here are a couple:

How to Build Satellite Internet to Get WiFi | eHow.com

How to Turn a Satellite Dish Into a WiFi Antenna | eHow.com

and here is a video

How to hack a satellite dish into a WiFi signal booster | Video « Wonder How To

Hope these help.


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

*Teenager builds 'death-ray' which can burn through almost anything*

While many teenagers are content to sit at home playing computer games, this one has set his sights on something a little more ambitious.

Eric Jacqmain, from Indiana in the US, covered an ordinary fibreglass satellite dish with 5,800 tiny mirror tiles - and made his very own 'death ray'.

When aligned correctly it can generate a heat spot a couple of centimetres across, with an intensity of 5,000 shining suns, the 19-year-old claims.

Eric Jacqmain invented a 'Death ray' dish that had the intensity of 5,000 suns | Mail Online


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## Necred (Sep 26, 2010)

*dish*

i have 2 from 80's, 10 ft inverted on 3 poles to use as shade for my donkeys. Ive seen many with thatch on top as bikini huts..


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## caveman (Sep 27, 2011)

*what can i do with a satellite dish?*

I recently took down a satellite dish and was wondering if any of you out there might have any clever ideas to reuse this thing. Its 8ft diameter, a steel frame frame, and covered with aluminum mesh. I thank you. Stay safe out there,


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## Possumfam (Apr 19, 2011)

I don't know exactly how they do it, I suppose you could youtube it or something, but some have made solar cookers out of them. Don't remember if they had to sand it down, or put a finish on it, or what, but I think it's a parabolic cooker? And, if I remember correctly, they were pretty powerful.

edit - okay, maybe your's is too big for that....don't know


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

*Sorry caveman *, When I merged these two threads I wanted to have your question at the top.  I goofed, but you'll still find some ideas here.


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## caveman (Sep 27, 2011)

That's ok bro, I should have searched before posting. These are a lot of great ideas. Thanks!


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

I like the mirror-tile idea, but most "large" sat dishes are pretty flimsy and wouldn't handle the weight.

I could use the steam from something like this!
I have to go take one down from a friend's yard that looks about 8 feet across. It is meshed metal. I am going to try to stiffen it with extra framing and see how hard it would be to add mirror material.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

a few videos:






green power science has 300+ videos!


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

You could put a microphone in it and use it to eavesdrop on your neighbors.


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## Possumfam (Apr 19, 2011)

Possumfam said:


> I don't know exactly how they do it, I suppose you could youtube it or something, but some have made solar cookers out of them. Don't remember if they had to sand it down, or put a finish on it, or what, but I think it's a parabolic cooker? And, if I remember correctly, they were pretty powerful.
> 
> edit - okay, maybe your's is too big for that....don't know


My internet must've messed up. When I repsonded to this, I thought this was the original post. Weird.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

BillS said:


> You could put a microphone in it and use it to eavesdrop on your neighbors.


Parabolic microphones are generally not used for standard recording applications because they tend to have poor low-frequency response as a side effect of their design. This is a direct result of the physical laws that govern sound waves. Parabolas only focus waves with a wavelength much smaller than the diameter of the parabola, obtaining hi-fidelity sound (down to 20 Hz, the lower limit of human hearing) would require a parabola with a diameter greater than 17 meters (= 342 m/s / 20 Hz). Most parabolic microphones sacrifice low-end fidelity to get a more manageable size... 12" to 20" for human voices.

from Acoustic mirror - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prior to World War II and the invention of radar, acoustic mirrors were built as early warning devices around the coasts of Great Britain, with the aim of detecting airborne invasions. The most famous of these devices still stand at Denge on the Dungeness peninsula and at Hythe in Kent. Other examples exist in other parts of Britain (including Sunderland, Redcar, Boulby, Kilnsea) and Selsey Bill, and Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq in Malta. The Maltese sound mirror is known locally as "the ear" (il-Widna) and appears to be the only sound mirror built outside Great Britain.

The Dungeness mirrors, known colloquially as the "listening ears", consist of three large concrete reflectors built in the 1920s-1930s. Their experimental nature can be discerned by the different shapes of each of the three reflectors: one is a long, curved wall about 5 m high by 70 m long, while the other two are dish-shaped constructions approximately 4-5 m in diameter. Microphones placed at the foci of the reflectors enabled a listener to detect the sound of aircraft far out over the English Channel. The reflectors are not parabolic, but are actually spherical mirrors. Spherical mirrors may be used for direction finding by moving the sensor rather than the mirror; another unusual example is the Arecibo Observatory.


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