What cool stuff can I do with a satellite TV dish?

June 28, 2007 9:32 AM

I have a Dish Network satellite dish + satellite receiver that I never returned after I cancelled my contract with them. What cool things can I do with it?

I'm moving in a few months, up to NYC, where I certainly won't have the space for it to sit in storage (or the desire for Dish network). So what can I do with this bulky, awkward, as-far-as-I-can-tell-useless hunk of hardware? Does anyone actually buy these things?

(Yes, I paid the fee. It was a snafu and a waste of money and all that. Please refrain from pointing this out to me; I'm well aware already.)

posted by kdar to Technology (5 answers total)

Build a WiFi biquad dish antenna.
posted by Floydd at 9:48 AM on June 28, 2007

I know you can sell DirecTV dishes and equipment, I would assume you can do the same with dish stuff.

check ebay.
posted by PugAchev at 9:50 AM on June 28, 2007

antenna -> salad dish?
posted by Artful Codger at 9:50 AM on June 28, 2007

I think some people have used small sat dishes for cool ham radio stuff. Suitability probably depends on the dimensions and geometry of the dish, because that would affect whether it could be modified for one of the amateur microwave bands.

I suspect you can probably get a few bucks -- or at least get rid of it -- via Craigslist or Freecycle.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:56 AM on June 28, 2007

It shouldn't be totally useless - there's a Make magazine article about using dishes to grab unencrypted signals off of the various satellites around. It's apparently a lot of foreign and religious programming, but it's certainly possible that you'd be able to find something you'd like. That's assuming that you're able to mount it at your place in NYC.

Or, you could just sell it to someone.
posted by god hates math at 10:23 AM on June 28, 2007