Is a DirectTV antenna useful for anything?

I"m not interested in stealing directtv but when I saw the antenna in
the trash, I thought the coax would be useful.

Now before I throw the rest away, I wonder if it is useful for any
other purpose, like an antenna for broadcast stations, especially
since they are moving to digital.

Besides the dish and the white plastic thing in the focal point of the
dish, there is a tube that's bent in a flattened circle, clamped at a
couple places onto the dish. I have the feeling it's a non-satellite
antenna. Is it useful for anything?

Thanks.

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)

mm wrote:

}Is a DirectTV antenna useful for anything?
}...
}Now before I throw the rest away, I wonder if it is useful for any
}other purpose, like an antenna for broadcast stations, especially
}since they are moving to digital.

It's not whether the signal is analog or digital, it's the frequency that
determines the antenna type.

The dish is a parbolic reflector, which won't work on signals much
"longer" (i.e. bigger wavelength) than satellite frequencies. Probably
useless for UHF TV signals.

Stan.

Stan wrote:
The dish is a parbolic reflector, which won't work on signals much
"longer" (i.e. bigger wavelength) than satellite frequencies. Probably
useless for UHF TV signals.

If it's a satellite dish, it's probably for the Ku band. (around
10gHz). It has some ham radio applications and there are FTA (free
to the air) satellite signals out there.

If it has the LNB (the antenna, low noise amplifier and block
converter combination) still attached, you can get a cheap digital
receiver for around $100.

You can find out more information at LyngSat and Tele-Satellite
magazine's websites.

You may find that it's worth the money for the FTA signals,
you may not.

You also should check the satellite coverage maps to make sure
that there is enough signal beamed to your location. For example,
there is a set of "birds" which I can point a dish at and "see",
but there is no signal at all here. Too bad, they have BBC, ITV
and whole bunch of free programs my kids would like.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

(Geoffrey S. Mendelson) wrote in
:

Stan wrote:
The dish is a parbolic reflector, which won't work on signals much
"longer" (i.e. bigger wavelength) than satellite frequencies. Probably
useless for UHF TV signals.

If it's a satellite dish, it's probably for the Ku band. (around
10gHz). It has some ham radio applications and there are FTA (free
to the air) satellite signals out there.

If it has the LNB (the antenna, low noise amplifier and block
converter combination) still attached, you can get a cheap digital
receiver for around $100.

You can find out more information at LyngSat and Tele-Satellite
magazine's websites.

You may find that it's worth the money for the FTA signals,
you may not.

You also should check the satellite coverage maps to make sure
that there is enough signal beamed to your location. For example,
there is a set of "birds" which I can point a dish at and "see",
but there is no signal at all here. Too bad, they have BBC, ITV
and whole bunch of free programs my kids would like.

Geoff.



10Ghz is X-band,Ku is IIRC,24 Ghz.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Jim Yanik wrote:
10Ghz is X-band,Ku is IIRC,24 Ghz.

According to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_band

It's 11.7 to 12.2 GHz (LOF 10.750 GHz). I don't know what LOF means.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
Jim Yanik wrote:

10Ghz is X-band,Ku is IIRC,24 Ghz.


According to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_band

It's 11.7 to 12.2 GHz (LOF 10.750 GHz). I don't know what LOF means.

Geoff.
LOF = Local Oscillator Frequency ? For the down converter.

Bill K7NOM

Bill Janssen wrote in
:

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
Jim Yanik wrote:

10Ghz is X-band,Ku is IIRC,24 Ghz.


According to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_band

It's 11.7 to 12.2 GHz (LOF 10.750 GHz). I don't know what LOF means.

Geoff.
LOF = Local Oscillator Frequency ? For the down converter.

Bill K7NOM


yes.the IF freq coming from the LNB to the receiver is 950Mhz-1450Mhz.
I always get K and Ku bands mixed up.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:19:11 -0500, mm
wrote:

Is a DirectTV antenna useful for anything?

I"m not interested in stealing directtv but when I saw the antenna in
the trash, I thought the coax would be useful.

Now before I throw the rest away, I wonder if it is useful for any
other purpose, like an antenna for broadcast stations, especially
since they are moving to digital.

Besides the dish and the white plastic thing in the focal point of the
dish, there is a tube that's bent in a flattened circle, clamped at a
couple places onto the dish. I have the feeling it's a non-satellite
antenna. Is it useful for anything?
Thanks.

I was looking for something else, a tv volume regulator, and I came
across this:

http://www.nextag.com/Audiovox-TERK-...1837E3BFF49FE9

The two parallel curved rods, connected at the ends, are the part of
the DirectTV antenna I was referring to above (which has the name TERK
on it). The interesting thing is a DirectTV antenna is aimed at a
satellite and therefore the extra part, wrapped around the edge, is
pretty much facing down.

Yet in the picture in this url, it appears to be facing the station,
and I think this is the "highly directional UHF elements". So why is
it facing down on t he directtv antennal?


If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)

On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:06:41 -0500, mm
wrote:


I was looking for something else, a tv volume regulator, and I came
across this:

http://www.nextag.com/Audiovox-TERK-...1837E3BFF49FE9

This whole item is labeled
Audiovox TERK HDTV o - TV antenna (HDTVO)
Terk Audiovox Terk HDTV O - TV Antenna (Hdtvo)

What is the O in HDTVO?

The two parallel curved rods, connected at the ends, are the part of
the DirectTV antenna I was referring to above (which has the name TERK
on it). The interesting thing is a DirectTV antenna is aimed at a
satellite and therefore the extra part, wrapped around the edge, is
pretty much facing down.

Yet in the picture in this url, it appears to be facing the station,
and I think this is the "highly directional UHF elements". So why is
it facing down on t he directtv antennal?

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)

On Thu, 6 Mar 2008 08:44:01 +0000 (UTC), (Geoffrey
S. Mendelson) wrote:

Stan wrote:
The dish is a parbolic reflector, which won't work on signals much
"longer" (i.e. bigger wavelength) than satellite frequencies. Probably
useless for UHF TV signals.

If it's a satellite dish, it's probably for the Ku band. (around
10gHz). It has some ham radio applications and there are FTA (free
to the air) satellite signals out there.

If it has the LNB (the antenna, low noise amplifier and block
converter combination) still attached, you can get a cheap digital
receiver for around $100.

You can find out more information at LyngSat and Tele-Satellite
magazine's websites.

You may find that it's worth the money for the FTA signals,
you may not.

You also should check the satellite coverage maps to make sure
that there is enough signal beamed to your location. For example,
there is a set of "birds" which I can point a dish at and "see",
but there is no signal at all here. Too bad, they have BBC, ITV
and whole bunch of free programs my kids would like.

Astra 2D has a very limited footprint.

mm wrote:
[...]when I saw the antenna in the trash[...]

Going in a completely different direction,
if you've ever seen the parabolic microphones
on the sidelines at a NFL game, that could be copied.

On Mar 7, 1:06 am, mm wrote:
..

The two parallel curved rods, connected at the ends, are the part of
the DirectTV antenna I was referring to above (which has the name TERK
on it). The interesting thing is a DirectTV antenna is aimed at a
satellite and therefore the extra part, wrapped around the edge, is
pretty much facing down.

Yet in the picture in this url, it appears to be facing the station,
and I think this is the "highly directional UHF elements". So why is
it facing down on t he directtv antennal?

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)

The curved thingie, and the associated little yagi looking thingie
that goes with it is an add-on that has nothing to do with the dish.
Sold by Terk who makes various types of 'almost' antennas for
restrictive spaces.

Reading the ads it seems like the 'O' in HDTVO is some sort of
marketing-speak combining the terms HDTV and TiVO.

Short answer is that particular add-on contraption is intended to be a
UHF-TV antenna.

-Bill

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:11:30 -0800, DCT Dictator
wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:19:11 -0500, mm wrote:

Is a DirectTV antenna useful for anything?

Get a grill the same size and use it for a Hibachi.

Star Trek Enterprise model
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEer9n7qxYo

Frisbee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6QaeXoNu9A

Regarding this second one, long before anyone had heard of the
frisbee, back around 1952 when I was 5 and continuing for a few years,
I was using coffee can lids as flying saucers. Do you remember when
ooffee came in cans? With a key that caught a tab on the side at the
top, and wrapped a 1/4" wide metal strip around the key from around
the circumference of the can. (So the strip was ripped from the lid
and from one layer of the rest of the can.)

These spun well and flew really well. Fourty feet was no trouble, and
they would have gone farther if I didn't have a 7-year old's arm.
But occasionally, especially when I tried to throw it farther, it
abraded too much skin from the side of my index finger. Sometimes I
bled. So I finally got a hammer and banged down the sharp edge, all
around, but then the thing didn't fly well at all. But by now I
didn't want to face the pain and blood that went with the original lid
sometimes, so I gave up altogether.

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)

mm wrote:

On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:06:41 -0500, mm
wrote:


I was looking for something else, a tv volume regulator, and I came
across this:

http://www.nextag.com/Audiovox-TERK-...1837E3BFF49FE9

This whole item is labeled
Audiovox TERK HDTV o - TV antenna (HDTVO)
Terk Audiovox Terk HDTV O - TV Antenna (Hdtvo)

What is the O in HDTVO?

'Off Air'

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida