Uses for sat dish ?

[LandShark]

Anyone have an idea for what to do with an old style (10' ?) satellite dish? I have one on some property I'm buying that hasn't been used for years, so I'm planning to remove it. Hate to trash it, but can't think of any other uses for it.

 

[BIGDIG]

BIRD BATH

 

[moparguy]

Two ideas I've considered, both involve turning it upside down with legs. Put it in the corner of the garden, paint it green and store the tiller, rakes, hoes etc. under it.



Same concept, except add skids to the legs and use it over the round bale feeder in the pasture.



I hate to throw things away.



My little bro was getting rid of a old trampoline frame, the curved framework now forms the framework for a boat and sometimes little tractor shed. Only had to weld in 6' long legs on each end of the curves sections, and cover with 20' long metal.



I did had to go back and add corner bracing but it stood up to a 15" wet snow load a coupla of years ago with no problems.



RJR

 

[Jeff Clark]

I had a customer some years ago that made speakers. He took a 10' sat dish frame and made a speaker out of it. Don't know how well (or if) it worked, but it looked cool.

 

[LandShark]

The bird bath and shelter ideas won't fly. The dish is made of a mesh or screen type material (aluminum?). Is there a way to convert it to a listening device to listen in on the neighbors around the county?

 

[Bill Lins]

Why don't you put it on eBay? Somebody might be willing to buy it.

 

[illflem]

The give away section of my local newspaper usually has half a dozen a week for free.

They usually include the receiver also.

I tried using a mesh type one for screening out rocks from fill dirt, didn't last long filling it with a front loader but might work with a shovel.

If it's made out of aluminum your recycling center may pay you for it after it's chopped up.

I've known a couple of guys who have taken the electric actuator that moves the dish and use them to build automatic gate openers.

 

[mongoose]

on the garden subject, i've seem people us the screen mesh type of dish to make the top of a garden gazeebo. lets some light in, but puts out some shade as well.

 

[Doc Tinker]

Here are a few ideas:



Potato Grater



Cottage Cheese Strainer



Drift Sock



Get another one and put them together to make a lobster trap



Mount a big coil spring to the bottom, paint it like a flower and let the kids use it to play on





Doc

 

[schu777]

Ever see Christmas vacation... . shine that baby up and find the local hill this winter...



darn it... just realized it was a 10 foot dish... that would be a big bird bath!!

 

[LandShark]

Doc: So far, I like your idea the best. No lobster here, but I do have rock and Dungeness crab in the back yard. Will have to check on the legality of a 10' trap! . Or maybe cut up the mesh to make smaller crab traps.

 

[klenger]

Turn it upside down, put a pole thru the center, and put it over the picnic table.

 

[mcoleman]

We put a hole in a solid one by the outside frame and tied it to the back of the farm truck. Then tied a rope onto the dish to hang onto and took turns trying to throw one another off out in the field in the snow. Kind of like bull riding without the bull. Standing up makes it even more interesting. I was wanting to fasten one of the jaz fiberglass racing seats into the bottom of it with a seatbelt and go a little quicker but we ended up hauling it off.

 

[Andy Perreault]

I know of a house along Hwy 9 here in Washington (north of Woodinville for you Seattle guys) where a guy took two big satellite dishes and welded them together facing each other. He set them horizontally on legs, so the set up looks like a flying saucer. At Christmas time, he puts blinking lights on it and he has some alien looking figurines standing in front of it.

Andy

 

[HoleshotHolset]

The 10-footers make great amateur radio telescopes.....



You can get into the hobby pretty cheap if you don't mind soldering some components together.



There are a few websites out there that outline the whole process..... the one I remember is put up by MIT and it is really good for information.



If you got your youngin's hooked on this type of stuff at a young age - there's no telling how far they could go with the knowledge gained from such a hobby.



Matt

 

[klenger]

Amateur SETI anyone?

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Here's some amateur SETI/radiotelescope info I quickly found on Google:



www.bambi.net/

www.setileague.org/articles/amatseti.htm

www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/jml_bk.html

www.starkenburg-sternwarte.de/radio/eusara.htm



Matt