I got a custom inline deal that was built by a ham. it uses the atf10135 chip
http://www.mrs.bt.co.uk/dubus/9104-5.pdf
This is a document that mentions it.
Ebay has some commercial in-line amps for less than $100.
So far i haven't succeeded in acquiring signal yet either.
I think the dish is fine, feed on these wifi dishes is iffy and I think the RTL2832U most likely does a poor job at receiving these frequencies.
GOES-R team used a Ettus Research USRP as the receiver. I really ideally want this to work on RTL-SDR / RTL2832U but i dunno if this is dooable. We shall see I guess.