How to set up a second gun on a plate. The best mobile satellite dishes
It's easy to make and very powerful like a cannon. WiFi antenna. It can be used to receive and transmit Wi-Fi signal not just hundreds of meters, but several kilometers!
The antenna-gun resembles the appearance of a space blaster and, just like this fantastic weapon, has a directional and very powerful effect.
This is a directional antenna. And it is this property that gives a long reception distance due to the high concentration of the signal in one direction.
Antenna diagram
The drawing shows the dimensions between the antenna elements. Its resonant frequency is set to the middle of the Wi-Fi frequency of 2.4 GHz.
To make an antenna you will need
- Long stud with nuts.
- Metal sheet, I took copper because it is very easy to cut. In general, you can take tin from cans.
- . But you can connect to an existing router.
Making a powerful Wi-Fi gun antenna
Before you start making an antenna, you need to know that any deviation from the specified dimensions will greatly deteriorate its performance. Therefore, everything needs to be done as accurately as possible.We take a sheet of metal and roughly mark the centers of the diameters of the circles. Then we drill the center. For accuracy, before drilling, place a core or go through a thin drill, and then a thick one. As a result, the diameter of the hole should be slightly larger than the stud.
Then we take a compass and draw circles on the metal.
First cut out a square.
Then carefully cut out a circle.
The result was circles for the antenna.
I took a long hairpin. I cut off the excess along the length of the antenna, taking into account the width of the nut.
That's ready set for assembly.
We assemble the antenna. Everything is very simple, like a construction set in childhood.
To control dimensions, I recommend using a metal ruler, as it is more accurate.
In the last two disks you need to make holes for connecting the cable.
We will make a connector with a cable from old antenna from a router or adapter.
Remove the top casing.
Cut off the insulation. The antenna came off on its own because it was pressed in.
Next, unsolder the metal cap.
And the connector for connection is ready.
We tin the wheels. Copper is great in this regard. I once made such an antenna from an old computer case, so I had to tin it with acid.
We pass the cable through the hole in the last circle and solder the shielding winding to the disk.
Now we pass the middle core into the hole of the second disk and solder it.
The antenna is almost ready. I will install it on the camera bracket. There will be such a home option.
We screw it to the connector output.
You can tape it with electrical tape or tape to the bracket.
I will put the antenna on the window and point it at objects where there may be a signal.
Wow, how many networks have appeared. Although previously I only caught a signal from my router. There are not many access points in our city.
The result is amazing.
Add-ons
To enhance the effect, I decided to install such a cannon on the roof. But to do this, I need to solder a regular shielded cable, which I use for a satellite dish, instead of a connector.With such powerful Wi-Fi guns- antennas can transmit a signal to the garage, to work, to school, to the country house. All materials are available to absolutely everyone, and everything is done very simply.More detailed instructions You can learn how to assemble by watching the video below. It also shows more extensive testing of this powerful Wi-Fi antenna.
PS: If you are making an outdoor version, then for insulation and against corrosion it would be a good idea to paint the entire antenna with regular metal paint.
In any group, be it large or small, in a student group, in a school class, in a word, wherever people live or work, in addition to their first and last names, for some reason they assign nicknames to each other. Whether it’s because it’s shorter or more fun, I don’t know. In our village, many people also have such nicknames.
I won’t write about other people’s nicknames here, but I’ll say it for myself – here behind my back they call me TELESPUTNIK. This is because I repair TVs and stuff. household appliances, and also very often install and configure satellite dishes.
I’ll tell you how to quickly and correctly set up any satellite dish at minimal cost using the example of the Tricolor satellite.
First, a little economics.
When purchasing a set satellite equipment the seller will definitely offer you the services of specialists (usually his friends) to install it, because the vast majority of buyers do not know how to install satellite dishes.
With the cost of equipment sets, for example, 9...10 thousand rubles (Tricolor), or 5...8 thousand rubles. (Telecard), the cost of installation services in our area ranges from 1.5 thousand rubles to 2.5 thousand rubles, depending on the complexity of the installation work. Not 15 kopecks, however.
And in order to place the antenna in rural areas, you will also have to pay for the repairman’s travel there and back, at the rate of approximately 7…8 rubles. per kilometer, because he will come to you not by bus, but with his tools and instruments in his car. And then the installation cost satellite dish increases significantly.
That’s why they turn to me, because I do it cheaper, and I don’t charge money for the journey...
For self-installation satellite dish you will need the following.
1. A set of satellite equipment (dish, receiver, converter, antenna wire)
2. Sat Finder antenna tuning device (any brand and model)
3. Adapters, F-connectors, 2 pcs.
4. Three self-clamping anchor bolts M6 X 120..150 mm, if the walls of the house are stone
5. Three large bolts - wood self-tapping screw M6 X 150...200 mm, if the walls are wooden
6. Hammer, if the walls are stone
7. Wrenches or adjustable wrenches, 10, 13, 14, 17 (depending on the bolts)
8. Compass.
9. A piece of antenna wire 1.5..2 meters
And now, as expected, a little theory. In order to understand what needs to be done and why.
There are many satellites in the sky (or rather, in space). They hang there motionless, in geostationary orbit, rotating with the earth, at a distance of approximately 36,000 km, and naturally, are not visible. Each satellite is located in its own point of space assigned only to it. The location of each satellite is precisely known, it is immutable, and is very precisely maintained. In order to understand how the satellites are located and where they are, imagine...a rainbow. The satellites are located above the horizon in approximately the same arc, from its left edge to the right. Depending on where in our large country you live, you will be able to “see” with your antennas a little more or a little less of different satellites.
Each satellite has its own name, like a name. For example, the Tricolor satellite, to which we will tune our antenna, was previously called Evtelsat W4 36E, now it is called Express AMU-1 - 36E. And Tricolor is just the trade name of the organization transmitting the signal through this satellite. Telekarta (Continent TV), for example, has another satellite, Intelsat15 85E.
In addition, the name of the satellite usually contains a number, for example, 36E, 85E, 90E, 5W, 9W, which indicates the longitude over which it hangs, that is, the approximate direction to this satellite on the horizon.
But in our case, the sun and compass will be used to determine the direction to the satellite.
First of all, before installing the antenna, you need to decide on which side of the house it should be installed. For the area where I live (Bashkortostan, 56 degrees east longitude) and the Tricolor satellite, this will be the southern side, approximately the place from which the sun is clearly visible from 12 to 14 o'clock in the afternoon. There should be no interference in the form of trees, roofs, or high-voltage power lines between you and the sun (satellite). The height of installation of the antenna on the wall does not matter; mount it where it is more convenient for you to adjust it, just so that the antenna does not interfere with the driveway or passage. For example, I have one of the antennas standing directly on the ground, on an iron stand. I don’t recommend placing an antenna on the roof; you’ll be tortured to climb later if something happens to it. Naturally, the dish should not be mounted under the edge of the roof either, so that rain, snow and ice do not subsequently fall on the antenna. It should be possible to rotate the antenna when adjusting to the left and right as widely as possible.
Here's an example of what it looks like.
Now about the plate. In fact, it is not exactly a plate, rather it is a part of it, slightly compressed from the sides and elongated. Such a dish is egg-shaped and is called offset; it works like a crooked mirror, not only collecting, but also REFLECTING radio waves from the satellite to the receiving converter.
Therefore, the procedure for adjusting the position of the plate is approximately the same as if you came to a shooting range and began to aim at the target, standing with your back to it, through a mirror.
Before the dish itself, with the receiving converter, is attached to the wall of the house, you need to more accurately determine the direction to the satellite. For now it will be approximately, according to the compass. I repeat once again, for my area it will be an azimuth of 204 degrees. Let me remind you, if anyone doesn’t remember: to take azimuth, you need to set the compass so that its arrow points to the north, and below it is the zero mark of its scale. Without moving the compass, find 204 degrees on the scale and note this direction on the ground. Let it be in the direction of some tree, building, bush, stone, or whatever you have.
High precision is not required here, everything is approximately. After this, stand at the place where the antenna will be installed and look carefully in this direction at the sky, at an angle to the horizon of approximately 20...25 degrees. The Tricolor satellite is located somewhere there. There should be no obstacles in this direction in the form of roofs, trees, branches, poles, or power lines. This is where you attach your plate.
If the wall of the house is wooden, then the process of attaching the plate should be treated with special care, making sure that the screws get into the supporting structure of the house, into a beam, into a log or into a partition. If you simply screw a plate onto boards or onto a lathing, then when the humidity changes (summer - autumn - winter - spring), the wood will swell a little or shrink a little, the plate will move, and the signal will disappear. This has happened many times in my practice.
The accuracy of the installation of the satellite dish greatly affects the quality of reception, permissible vibration or the error here is no more than 3 (three!) millimeters.
After the plate is secured, first set the position of the mirror strictly vertically, level or plumb, and then tilt it back a little by 1.5..2 centimeters. Do not overtighten the bolts on the plate mounting.
This photo clearly shows how far the plate needs to be tilted.
Connect the receiver to the TV as indicated in its instructions. Turn it on. The receiver will enter channel search mode. Don't press anything, leave it as is. Connect the antenna wire from the dish to the receiver. Then, outside, connect the wire coming from the receiver using F-connectors to the Sat Finder device, connect another wire, prepared in advance, short, to the converter on the plate. An approximate view of wire cutting in the figure.
If there are no breaks or short circuits in the wiring, then the scale backlight will light up. This means that food is reaching the plate. By rotating the sensitivity control of the device, make sure that the device begins to crackle a little from interference (but not squeak).
A little about the Sat Finder device.
Don't take it as an advertisement. Its name is SF-9501, it is sold in almost all electronic stores, or, as a last resort, on Alibaba.com. An indispensable thing when setting up any satellite dish. At a relatively low cost (400...600 rubles) it saves great amount time and nerves.
The operating principle of this device is based on measuring the signal strength at the output of the converter and its sound and arrow indication.
There are various models and modifications, with displays, programmable, etc., but in our case, the simplest model will be more than enough.
Now that all connections have been checked and you can hear the noise crackling in the device, begin to slowly, very slowly move the plate horizontally to the left and then to the right. As the cymbal moves, you will hear several different signals from various satellites (there are many of them). Your task is to choose the strongest of them and leave the plate in this position.
Then use the regulator to reduce the sensitivity (beeper volume) of the Sat Finder and select more accurately the position of the plate in the horizontal plane.
If the signals are weak or not audible at all, tilt the plate back a little (1 cm) and repeat the search for the signal in the horizontal plane again. Thus, by searching horizontally, and with each pass raising the dish slightly above the horizon, you will find the satellite with the most strong signal. After such a signal is found, try moving the plate up or down a little (a centimeter, no more), achieving maximum signal strength. If necessary, reduce the sensitivity of the device for more accurate settings.
Check the approximate direction of the dish to the satellite; it should not differ from that previously found by the compass by more than 5...8 degrees in one direction or another.
Return to the TV. According to the instructions for the receiver, conduct an initial search for channels. Operator – Tricolor, region – Chelyabinsk or Ural. If the dish is configured correctly, you will see a list of many channels. Check if there is Tricolor - Info and Tricolor channels - Promo, TV-TV, TV2-TV among them. These channels should work even without activating the access card.
After all the channels have been found, return to the dish and carefully, so as not to lose the setting, secure all the fastenings of the dish and all the bolts and nuts with keys, controlling the signal strength on the device.
After fixing the antenna and checking the image on the TV, turn off the device and connect the wire from the receiver to the converter on the dish. This completes the setup. From the Tricolor satellite you will be able to view about ten free channels and about 300 paid ones. Now you should register your equipment with the operator by calling the special number specified in the instructions for the receiver. After registering the equipment, all channels found during setup will become available for viewing.
I think that viewing will be much more pleasant if you consider that the entire budget of our enterprise (with nails and electrical tape) is at the level of 700...800 rubles.
As practice has shown, the Sat Finder device will come in handy more than once. Whether there is a strong wind, or snow and ice, or some kind of reconstruction in the house, you can always go and adjust the shifted antenna, both at your place and at your neighbor’s.
Yes, just in case, I will give the parameters for the Intelsat 15 85E satellite, for the Telecard. The azimuth is 143 degrees, the elevation angle, that is, the “falling over” of the plate, is the same as that of the Tricolor. The rest of the setup method is exactly the same.
Enjoy watching!
A lot of people are wondering how to receive 90 degrees in two bands and not buy a second antenna. After all, reception requires large antennas, but they are quite expensive and, moreover, their installation does not add aesthetics to the environment.
Of course, there is a solution to buy a factory combined C + KU. But it can be several times more expensive for the purchase of individual converters. In some cases it is difficult to find just a C converter, but here it is also a combined one. Moreover, both the homemade one and the factory one will have the same reception and the latter will still have to be modified (polarizer, horn or something else). You can’t provide for everything, that’s why, and to save money, I decided to make my own combined C+KU converter.
In any case, I showed a separate C and a separate KU converter with a large margin on a solid direct focus 1.8 in diameter. After setting up the homemade product, the signal dropped by 10% - 15% on the 4100c scale on firmware version 1.3.11.
Making a combined C+KU converter
We take the C converter and put the KU converter without a cover on the back side of it, and use a pencil to draw out the contours for cutting. Some people drill holes along the contour and, after removing the tin, smooth the edges with a file. I simply cut along the contour with a small grinder.
In the C converter, I removed the depolarization pin completely (you can simply cut it through), and instead installed a piece of specially bent aluminum wire of the same diameter (so as not to interfere with the passage of the plastic tube).
We install the C converter on the already tuned antenna, adjust its depolarizer (I used the “mouth of a white shark”), and fix it.
We insert the KU into the bottom C of the converter; if there is a signal, we also adjust it and attach it to a temporary mount (you have to figure out how to do it yourself).
We take a plastic tube, without metal, the diameter of the waveguide of the converter KU (so that it fits tightly into it) and insert it on the antenna through C into the KU so that it protrudes in front of the converter C by 1.5 -2 cm. The signal will pass through it. We adjust to strengthen the signal. The tube should fit tightly so that it does not fall out due to wind fluctuations.
We check the signal C and KU and if everything is satisfactory, then we seal the junction of the converters and the hole of the depolarization pin (around the wire). I used dragon glue. I think it can be done with sealant.
After everything has dried, you can remove the additional fastening of the converter, but it is not necessary.
I am completely satisfied with this converter, I accept all channels, and it has been in service for two years now.
I recently rebuilt the signal so it’s better and there’s no need to spoil the converters
I wish you good luck as this is a painstaking task, but it’s worth it.
Why do satellite dishes come in different diameters? Many people ask this question. Of course, such questions are asked mainly by newcomers to the “antenna business”, but there are also specialists who know little about the difference in diameters. One user once asked me the same question why the Tricolor TV has a small antenna diameter, while the Raduga has a large one. Today we will answer these questions.
It's all about the power level of the signal received at a certain point in the satellite's geographic coverage area. How weaker signal, the larger the diameter of the mirror will be needed in order to amplify it and focus it on the converter. The purpose of a mirror is to reflect waves and to be able to collect them at one point, the focus. At this point it is established special device, this device converts the focused signals into electrical signals, which are sent through a cable to the receiver. The larger the area of the reflected surface, the greater the number of waves that will hit the converter. Thus, the diameter of the antenna depends on your geographical location.
You can select a diameter suitable for a particular area using the coverage map of the satellite to which you are going to tune your antenna. Below are satellite coverage maps from which Tricolor TV and Raduga TV broadcast, Eutelsat W4/W7 36.0°E and ABS 1 75.0°E, respectively.
Tricolor TV coverage map Eutelsat W4/W7 36.0°E satellite:
Raduga TV coverage map satellite ABS 1 75.0°E:
A coverage map is a projection of the directional pattern of a signal (beam) transmitted from a satellite to Earth. The diagram represents closed curves that are the boundaries of the signal power level. This value is measured in decibels (dbW). The diameter of the mirror will depend on this value. Below is a table of the relationships between the received signal power level and the diameter (cm) of the antenna.
Table of the relationship between power level and antenna diameter:
| Ku-band | |
| Power level, dbW | Antenna diameter, cm |
| >50 | 50 |
| 50 | 50-60 |
| 49 | 55-65 |
| 48 | 60-67 |
| 47 | 65-85 |
| 46 | 75-95 |
| 45 | 85-105 |
| 44 | 95-120 |
| 43 | 105-135 |
| 42 | 120-150 |
| 41 | 135-170 |
| 40 | 150-190 |
| 39 | 170-215 |
| 38 | 190-240 |
| 37 | 215-270 |
| 36 | 240-300 |
| 35 | 270-335 |
| 34 | 300-380 |
| 33 | 335-425 |
| 32 | 380-475 |
| 31 | 425-535 |
| 30 | 475-600 |
Based on maps of satellite coverage areas, we can conclude that for residents of, for example, the city of Rostov-on-Don, the following antenna diameters are suitable: for Tricolor TV a mirror with a diameter of 55 cm, and for Rainbow TV a mirror with a diameter of 90 cm. That's why they put a larger antenna on the Rainbow, and on Tricolor will do smaller diameter. But if we tune a small-diameter antenna, 55 or 60, on ABS 1 75.0°E, then we will either not tune it at all, or the signal will be very weak, and the picture will constantly crumble, and with the slightest interference, such as precipitation, the signal will disappear completely.
It should also be said that the antenna diameter should always be chosen with a margin to ensure confident welcome in bad weather conditions and other atmospheric phenomena. You also need to take into account that published maps of satellite coverage areas sometimes differ from the actual coverage area that exists in practice. In other words, the calculated coverage area often differs from the measured data. The best test, of course, is practice. And practice has shown that, for example, for reliable reception of TV channels of the Tricolor TV package in almost the entire European part of the Russian Federation, a mirror with a diameter of 55 cm is sufficient. The Tricolor TV delivery set also uses an antenna of this exact diameter. However, to be on the safe side, I would advise using a 60 cm mirror. Many people even use antennas with a diameter of 80 cm or 90 cm to receive a signal from this satellite. In this case, the saying “You can’t spoil porridge with butter” applies. As for Rainbow, the Rainbow TV company itself recommends and sells an antenna with a diameter of 90 cm for the European part. But practice has shown that 90 cm is of course good, and 120 cm is better. The 1.20 m antenna on the Rainbow works perfectly and provides reliable reception, even in heavy rain and heavy snowfall. The antenna is 90 cm, requires very precise alignment to the ABS 1 75.0°E satellite. And even with high-quality settings, in heavy precipitation, the picture “crumbles” on weak transponders.
It should also be said that if you want to receive several satellites at once on one antenna 2 or 3, using a multifeed, then you should choose a large antenna diameter. For example, a 1.20 m antenna will provide excellent reception of 3 nearby satellites at once, and such an antenna, of course, must be of the offset type.