Who invented the mesh dish?

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toucan-man

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Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
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Wisconsin
Does anyone know who first came out with a mesh BUD? And while we're at it, who created the first perf BUD? Enquiring mind wants to know...
 
You might have to do research in the microwave field or do you mean only for sats?
 
I don't know, but ...

The first microwave reflectors were probably built out of whatever material was conveniently available.
Perhaps a search on "radar" would give interesting information.

Those lower early frequencies might have reflected fine off the wire mesh used to wrap houses before applying stucco.
Is that mesh about 1½ inches or so?

Any sort of fencing material, or screening wire you find at a hardware store was a good candidate.
I've seen some wire mesh with a grid of about ½ or ¼ inch, that would drape fine over a parabolic frame, to make a dish.

Expanded mesh is a clever idea.
You pierce the metal sheet with little straight lines, then pull it to open up the holes...?
Pretty creative.
But again, I'd suspect it was to make some other product, then the dish makers latched onto it as a great solution.

It's the perforated material that intrigues me.
Take a solid panel and punch it full of little holes!
Who thought that up, and for what purpose?
I'm sure it wasn't for dishes, initially.
It'll conform better to odd shapes, lets air & light through, and weighs less than a solid panel.
When used in a thin sheet, it makes great panels for dishes with frames.
When used in a thicker sheet, it can be spun like a solid or hydro-formed, to make a free-standing dish.
You see it used in security doors, but was that the chicken... or the egg?? ;)
 
It's being a long time i thing the first mash dish was made by Channel master and then came Paraclipse, Uniden, SAMI , Unimash , KTI ,Orbitron ,Perfect 10 Otom ,

The first perf dish was made by Paraclipse, Unimash and Radio Shack.

The fist one piece solid metal dishes from 4' ft up to 8' ft was made by Andersen Antennas
 
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I've got a 12ft Conifer that was given to me that I haven't moved home yet but that dish was put up back in 1983 as that date is written in the concrete pad it's mounted on. Oh, and it's a mesh dish also but it's got larger holes in the mesh than my 10ft Winegard or 7.5ft SAMI.

If you look at some of the old footage from WWII you'll see some mesh dishes used for radar aboard ships so the mesh goes back into the 1940s.
 
I was in the Army in '60 and we had mesh dishes for microwave (4-5Ghz) radio relay sites. Rule of thumb was as long as the hole wasn't bigger than 1/10 of the wavelength it would reflect.
 
The first microwave reflectors were probably built out of whatever material was conveniently available.
Perhaps a search on "radar" would give interesting information.

Those lower early frequencies might have reflected fine off the wire mesh used to wrap houses before applying stucco.
Is that mesh about 1½ inches or so?

Any sort of fencing material, or screening wire you find at a hardware store was a good candidate.
I've seen some wire mesh with a grid of about ½ or ¼ inch, that would drape fine over a parabolic frame, to make a dish.

Expanded mesh is a clever idea.
You pierce the metal sheet with little straight lines, then pull it to open up the holes...?
Pretty creative.
But again, I'd suspect it was to make some other product, then the dish makers latched onto it as a great solution.

It's the perforated material that intrigues me.
Take a solid panel and punch it full of little holes!
Who thought that up, and for what purpose?
I'm sure it wasn't for dishes, initially.
It'll conform better to odd shapes, lets air & light through, and weighs less than a solid panel.
When used in a thin sheet, it makes great panels for dishes with frames.
When used in a thicker sheet, it can be spun like a solid or hydro-formed, to make a free-standing dish.
You see it used in security doors, but was that the chicken... or the egg?? ;)
The ones we used to make were perforated from the same aluminum panels that our solid dishes were made of. I remember the machine that was used to punch the holes in the panels was really loud. The little dots that it popped out were always all over the factory. The antennas worked well. I also remember testing the new mesh dishes to see how much signal passed through them. We put another 10 foot dish behind one of the mesh antennas aiming it at the same bird. The one behind did get enough signal to show a picture. This of course was back in the day of analog C-band.
 
Looking at a cover of Coop's Satellite Digest from 1979, it's clear that mesh dishes were there at the start of the C-band TVRO revolution.

One of the most beautiful mesh BUDs I've ever seen is on the cover of another issue from 1982. The Luly Umbrella Antenna is simply gorgeous. Big Beautiful Dish is what it is.
 
Looking at a cover of Coop's Satellite Digest from 1979, it's clear that mesh dishes were there at the start of the C-band TVRO revolution.

One of the most beautiful mesh BUDs I've ever seen is on the cover of another issue from 1982. The Luly Umbrella Antenna is simply gorgeous. Big Beautiful Dish is what it is.
It's been how long and you still haven't posted those pix...?? ;)

Best answer in this thread. - :D
 
It's been how long and you still haven't posted those pix...?? ;)

I hope these will warm your little reptilian heart, haha.

10-79.jpg6-82.jpg

Oh, you can find the magazine covers in this book,

C-Band Remembered

--

And, order a DVD with all of Coop's Satellite Digest here.

(I bought a bunch of stuff on that page to get me a taste of what it was like back in the day.)
 
Love that 2nd picture of the 24-segment mesh on the camera tripod!
Now, that's hilarious ! - :D

And thanks, my chilly pump is suitably warmed. - :cool:
 
Love that 2nd picture of the 24-segment mesh on the camera tripod!
Now, that's hilarious ! - :D

Those were mushed in by dogsled to remote cabins in Alaska. The lightweight and collapsible feature might serve Iceberg and his beloved hockey rather well. If he could find one...
 
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