Help With a C-Band dish. (Turn it into WIFI ant)

[radiance365]

I moved into my new house about a year ago and it has one of those really old C-Band dishes from like the 90's or 80's... I am still really new to this (the closest I have to having a clue is I have worked with routers before...) But anyways I looked into how people have been making it broadcast wifi 100+ miles and was wondering if someone knew of a tutorial or something to help me figure out how to make this.. If any there are any other questions that you need to ask before you can help just lemme know. If this is in the wrong forum my apologies this looked like the right place. Additional info: It is 10 feet long.

tl;dr: I need a guide on turning a c-band dish into wifi broadcaster.

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome to the Site. I moved your post to the FTA thread. Not exactly the proper thread, since here we use our C-band dishes to receive TV still.(Yes in 2011)
However I thought you might get a better response here.

Why do you need to send a WIFI 100 miles? I would use that dish for TV and find a different solution for WIFI. Are you just wanting to experiment? I know there are some FCC rules on upping the ERP on that stuff also. Maybe someone will have more info than I do.

 

[hwm]

At the 2.4 GHz and higher frquencies used by WiFi, you need a dish with better surface accuracy than a typical old-school C-band dish.

Smaller stamped metal one-piece Ku and Ka band satellite antennas have been used to successfully extend the range of WiFi networks. Try a google search for:

SATELLITE DISH WIFI

 

[Pixl]

An old C-band dish would actually work better than any Ku or dbs dish. Since the freq is half of the C-band freq, 2.4 ghz, surface accuracy is less of a concern.
I have read where people have put a usb wifi dongle in the focal point of an old dish with good results, especially on a old C-band dish. Ku dishes are too small, might as well use a 2.4g Yagi, more gain, less foot print.

 

[SatelliteAV]

C-band dishes have been used for many long distance 802.11 land point to point records. The 2.4ghz band is well suited for extreme long distance links. The surface tolerance is fine. C-band is typically between 3.4 and 4.2ghz and the surface accuracy is slightly more demanding than the WiFi 2.4ghz band.

It would certainly be overkill to adapt your inherited dish for longrange WiFi. Probably be better to explorer the television and radio entertainment options that are available free of monthly fees from the dozens of satellites.

 

[FaT Air]

If I am right, the record is 125 mileshttp://www.satelliteguys.us/#"...way to somewhere adjacent to St. George, Utah, using unamplified 802.11b(although the gain of the dish produces erp in excess of legal limits) Place a cantenna at the focal point. aim. and tweak feed for max. The only question is, Why?

 

[Cham]

Cantenna makes great feed for a 10' dish, only thing is aiming... you will be within less than a degree depending on how well the feed horn is placed. A smaller dish like a 30" or 36" will give you 20+ dBi over the little sma antenna and will give you a couple of miles range and easier to aim. Make sure the polarity of both ends of the link are the same... Likely want to stay clear of channel 6, use the quietest channel if possible.
C-band dishes also work well for 5.7GHz... double the gain. Any higher in frequency band it would have to be a solid reflector but no reason why you can't use them up to 24GHz but the feed point system gets rather delicate.
-C.

 

[FaT Air]

10-4

 

[Cadsulfide]

I've used Dish 500's mounted upside-down with a biquad antenna's mounted in a piece of 4" pvc pipe for weather protection. They work well for los links of a mile or so.

Biquad Antenna Construction

 

[hwm]

I was adding one too many zeros to 2.4 in my head. I see now that wifi is around 2400, not 24000. My mistake.