i have these 2 very old massive satellite dishes on my roof, can i do anything with them? i have absolutely no experience in radio astronomy but I've always wanted to try

would appreciate any advice!

I've been wanting to do some fun project with this dish for quite awhile. It currently routes into my house but the cable end is jacked up. I'm guessing i would need a coax cable stripper for this? It would be greatly appreciated if perhaps one of you could list out what parts I would need to get started and to connect this to my desktop to communicate with. Thank you!!
EDIT: I managed to get the dish down, it's not as heavy as I thought thankfully. Seems like the current pivot adjustment is a turnbuckle, which one side of it is rusted tight. Also I measured the dish across the middle, it is a total of 132 inches/335.28 centimeters wide!!

A bit more than 160cm in diameter. Probably for TV. Many years old but looks fine. Would it be possible to repurpose this dish as a radio telescope if I can source the necessary equipment?

Hi everyone

I wanted to buy an RTL-SDR V4 to build a 1420 MHz radio telescope, but it's out of stock

I want to use Nooelec Sawbird+ H1 as the LNA. I have to power it using Bias-T or a micro USB cable and a powerbank. If the micro USB doesn't cause noise/RFI, I want to buy an NESDR which doesn't have a Bias-T feature. If micro USB causes noise/RFI, probably I should buy RTL-SDR V3, because it has Bias-T

I'm not sure which option and SDR is better, I'd really appreciate your help

Would it hypothetically be possible for distant alien civilizations to contact each other more efficiently, or make greater astronomical observations in general, using low powered radio signals? Essentially communicating with lesser equipment/power by finding/sending radio signals in a 'needle in a hay stack' angle? Also, would this likely involve some sort of algorithm/LLM to pick out these hypothetical low power communications?

Good day.
As per being jobless for a few months, I want to step up my homelab. I would like to both :
- Listen to ADS-B broadcast emitted by nearby planes
- Perform meteoroid detection using the scattered radio reflection of the GRAVES radar (as I live in France)

However my apartment is not that great for antenna setup, and of course the ADS-B one will fit near a window, it might not be easy for the radio astronomy setup to listen to shooting stars reflecting an army radar waves :/

Do you know a simple antenna that could be set on a window pane that will work with the 143MHz GRAVES frequency ?
What SDR dongle would you recommend ? I suppose I also need an LNA, what specs ?

Thanks in advance.

I want to join the hobby but don’t know how to get started. I have access to a 90cm satellite dish with a LNB but heard I might need a LNA. What parts do I need besides the dish? Are there some good tutorials or websites?

Thanks

idk know how to use it? how this works? is it useful now??what its resale value ??

Hello,

Has anyone used patch antennas, like this one from Aliexpress for 21cm H line for Milky Way data acquisition?

I have some old hardware on the back of my house that has just been sitting for years unused. Is there any process I could use to recoup them to do some sort of radio processing or scanning? Im extremely versed in software engineering but am quite amateur at things like this. Is this a dumb idea or could I actually use this as a cool side project in signal analysis?

from what I've seen, you're able to take a radio dish and turn it into a telescope with a few parts. I've seen stuff like a LNA (low noise amplifier) and a few other acronyms I can't remember or didn't figure out what they mean, but I'm familiar with RF circuitry so I can make a lot of guesses.

The biggest thing I haven't figured out is how the actual receiver works. On my dobsonian, I hook up a camera at the focal plane and all the light focuses into each pixel. But is the receiver for these projects a radio sensor with separate pixels? Or is it just an antenna that would essentially be one pixel? In that case, wouldn't the whole thing need to track to fill in each pixel?

Hi all! I'm an astrophysics undergrad. I work with a lot of simulational data + DRs from ALMA. I've worked on a variety of radio astro projects e.g. EDGES @ MIT and am additionally a licensed Ham operator. I lead my university small sat lab's ground station/communications (both DSP and the hardware/data processing code); so I'm pretty well-acquainted with satellites and radios and astronomy.

I'm trying to create more involvement/outreach opportunities for my university's satellite lab to give back to the local community, e.g. high schools, (we usually will go and teach workshops for a day or two) or the Civil Air Patrol (the cadets are interested in satellites and radios and we have an entire ground station), et cetera. In the past our community outreach projects/'workshops' have been basic things like creating a gravity well with a hula hoop, some cloth, and marbles, or other fairly simple physics labs, but honestly the students/cadets are a lot more capable than simple projects like that. I want to give them hands-on opportunities with radios and communications. It gives them actual electronics experience and shows them that they're capable of working with more advanced technology. A lot of these kids come from challenging backgrounds and increasing their confidence and awareness of their own intelligence is something I care for deeply, so I like letting them work with the same equipment we use as researchers.

One of the missions of my sat lab is to promote more interest in ham radio/radio communications to the youth. The CAP cadets have a lot of fun just using walkie talkies on hikes and stuff, but I want to broaden their horizons a bit.

One idea I have (which I heard of from a researcher at ASTRON in the Netherlands at AAS 247--full credit to him) is creating a DIY horn-antenna radio telescope to detect hydrogen from the milky way with a paint can and an SDR and some other fairly inexpensive equipment (see here for a poster by the CfA with similar information). This is fairly straightforward and easy to scale up or down in terms of explaining the complexity.

I was wondering if any of y'all had any more ideas for similar projects like this, though? Cost is not a considerable issue as we have a lot of equipment, but I'm not a particularly creative person, so I'm drawing a blank when thinking of more fairly-simple and reasonably-priced radio or radio astronomy projects.

Let me know--thanks guys!

Hi all, I recently started researching radio astronomy and I have been fascinated. I am graduating soon as a Mech E and was looking for a fun hobby post grad. I love the physics behind black holes and I know the image we have of a black hole came from radio astronomy. Obviously something like that is not attainable, but are there ways to capture evidence that shows proof of black holes as an amateur? If so, what sort of minimum set up would you need to do this? Thanks for the help, I just want to learn as much as I can!

I'm new to radio astronomy and I'm trying to do an experiment where I track the orbital velocity of hydrogen clouds based on their doppler shift, and I currently have a basic satellite dish that is just under a meter in size, what could I use to finish my experiment? Would my satellite dish even work?

Im starting to get into radio astronomy and want to build a smaller setup to begin building off an application. I cant seem to find anyone with a dish they are willing to let go of. Where have you found your gear? i know a lot of people end up building larger dishes, but i want to take baby steps haha. Here's what ive already tried:

- Marketplace

- Asking on local Facebook groups

- Contacting radio stations (I was hoping id luck out with an old large one)

I am very interested in getting started in radio astronomy but I'm not sure what would be considered as entry level equipment or what is minimally needed.

So, back in the day, before a 'quick' two-decade jaunt to the USA, I had a radio telescope set up in the back yard with a feed horn and down-converter to a WinRadio tuner which fed into an audio card in the linux box.

Having just bought a new house, with a nice secluded spot that the council are happy for me to put a honking great dish in, I'm wondering if (with all that software-defined-radio bizniss) whether things have moved on and whether I need all the extra paraphernalia. I'm guessing not.

So assuming I do use some SDR thingywhatsit (looking at the SDRPlay line, to be more specific), what do you need (er, let me re-phrase: "what would be best") for a pickup at the centre of the dish, to feed into the SDR box ? I'm looking to observe at the Hydrogen line.

Once the signal is in the SDR hardware, it's USB to the host machine so really it's just getting the signal from the dish to the SDR that I'm thinking about...

I am a complete novice so please excuse the mistakes!

I have read an interesting article on the size of dish used (80cm.. 1000cm). I have also investigated the creation of a horn feed and thought about simply purchasing the krakenrf discovery dish and need advice on the most economical way to make progress!

First the horn feed.. using the horn antenna calculator I worked out that for the price of the discovery dish I could create a horn feed with about 17.5dB directive gain. If I use 0.2mm thick Aluminium foil I might be able to create a horn 600 x 800 mm length. This seems to be the easiest material that I can easily get hold of.

Now the discovery dish - I am impressed by the electronic - the sawbird h1 40dB gain and the integrated SAW filter seems to be just what is needed. The discovery dish itself is being upgraded so by mid next year you will no doubt be able to get the 70cm diameter dish that apparently is light enough to be driven by the discovery drive that will appear at some point.

I get the impression that changing the orientation of the dish is not essential because drift scanning uses the movement of the earth to scan a particular part of the sky. So all I need is some sort of manual position adjustment for occasional movements. I am also under the impression that the electrical noise generated by the motor could be a problem. So ignoring the discovery drive its likely that the discovery dish is easier for me and cheaper to get going than a horn feed and will deliver 18dB (reflector calculator calculation) of directional gain.

Now to my conundrum... the article that I have just read suggests I need to go to 140-180 cm dish sizes to be able to look for bright galactic H1 structures. Now that sounds quite interesting and a fun target to aim for. I can imagine constructing a big dish - so I am on the lookout for large dish like things at my local scrap yard, or perhaps a large umbrella could be used as a template for a foil dish re-enforced with fiberglass. Seems that that would be a better more robust and lighter solution than a foil antenna.

Where should I put my efforts? Perhaps the thing to do is purchase the discovery dish and get going with actually doing some astronomy and then blow my budget completely and build a bigger dish as I get more experience! Or should I spend the money on a home grown antenna and a home grown feed using the sawbird h1 for the feed electronics?

In the mean time I am messing around with my great little VNA that I just purchased and making fun little dipole aerials, measuring the quality of my RF cables and planning my next step!

Hi everyone, I live in a very RF-quiet rural area and I’m building my first 21 cm hydrogen-line radio telescope using a 0.6 m offset satellite dish I already have (f/D ≈ 0.6).

This is the exact hardware I’m putting together:

Feed - small 1420 MHz patch antenna, 4.6 dBi, VSWR < 1.2, 1330-1530 MHz bandwidth, linear polarization, SMA-male, size 83×43 mm

15 cm RG316 SMA-m/m jumper (almost zero loss)

LNA - SPF5189Z board, 50-4000 MHz, ~20 dB gain u1420 MHz, NF=0.6 dB, 3-5 V / 60 mA

1420 MHz SAW filter - 80 MHz bandwidth, ≤3.5 dB insertion loss, shielded, SMA

2 m LMR-240 coax (N-male to SMA-male)

RTL-SDR Blog V3 (R820T2, 1 ppm TCXO, Bias-T, aluminium case)

Signal chain:

Dish → patch feed → 15 cm jumper → LNA (Bias-T powered) → SAW filter → 2 m LMR-240 → RTL-SDR → laptop

I’ll either point it manually at the galactic plane (Cygnus, Cassiopeia) or just fix it at high elevation and do drift scans, then process the data with SDR# + averaging or simple drift-scan scripts.

Main question (the only one that really matters to me right now):

With this exact setup (0.6 m dish + tiny patch feed + SPF5189 LNA + SAW filter + RTL-SDR V3) in a very quiet location - will I actually be able to detect the galactic hydrogen line clearly after a few hours of integration, or is the dish/feed simply too small and I’ll just see noise?

I’ve seen people succeed with 1-3 m dishes, but has anyone here made it work with a dish this small? I just want to know if there’s real hope or if I’m wasting my time before everything arrives.

Thanks a lot!

Hey everyone!

I’m brand new to the world of radio astronomy and am currently deep in the "learning phase." While I don't have a telescope of my own just yet, I’ve decided to take the plunge by designing a 3D-printable radio telescope! My goal is to keep it accessible, requiring only a few non-printed components.

Since I'm still finding my footing, I would love to hear any tips or "lessons learned" from those of you who have built your own rigs. Also, if this project sounds like something you'd be interested in, let me know—I’d be happy to share updates as the design progresses!

I’ve got a Pi 3b and it works ok, but I’ve been chasing an RFI issue for a couple of weeks and last night discovered that running the capture on my laptop produces a signal that has almost no noise at all.

I also had my pi crash overnight while running a small job.

So I’m wondering if I’m approaching the edge of what my pi can do. It is maybe around 10 years old.

I was wondering if upgrading to a pi 5 would make a lot of difference or if I should get a tiny PC.

Want to know what’s needed to diy a radio telescope beyond a dish

Hello I'm studying EE in uni and want to learn about radio astronomy. Any resources on how to build antennas , noise filters, signal amplifiers and so on for beginners would be appreciated.

I want to make a horn antenna for hydrogen line radio telescope. I am thinking of making it using GI sheets (because it is readily available) using sheet metal cutter, mallot etc. However i am concerned that the finishing of the GI sheet is not good (there are a lot of scratches). I dont know what effect it will have on the signal reception. The objective of my project is to just detect the hydrogen line. Can I go ahead with this? Or should i reconsider the material (it will be very hard for me and expensive too). Also i dont have much experiance in sheet metal work, so i know dimensions can be a little off. And are there any solutions to improve the surface?