Turn a satellite dish into a parabolic dish

[ZathEros]

Infringer , if you like dish network you should check out the viewsat pro reciever. It has dvr abilities if you  add a usb hard drive. They cost ~189.00 us. The viewsat has autoroll encryption. after you buy one you can download the encryption keys and you get all of the  dish network and Bell express view channels. Best of all it is perfectly legal, as it is up to the broadcaster to secure thier signal if transmitting on public airwaves in the U.S. dish does ocaisionally  knock it offline by changing thier algorythms but the hacker community has new keys within around 12 hours.
food for thought.

[ZathEros]

Below is a link for redrok engineering. This fellow makes some very nice, low cost components for building solar tracking systems.
He even has his schematics on his web page, if one would want to deviate from his design. No need to though, his price is right and the package small. the trackers can be tailored to drive most any motor.
He did some cool things with the small sattellite dish movers hooked up to his tracker, and can swing 16 square ft. with off the shelf components.
Worth checking out.
Zatheros7

tracker
http://www.redrok.com/led3xassm.htm

low cost dish mover
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Order/Motors/HH-Motors.htm

[zerotensor]

I made a parabolic reflector from a small 24-inch satellite dish with a number of compact disks as the reflective surfaces, attached to the dish with double-sided carpet tape.  Crude but effective.  The dish focused distant sources to a softball-sized hot zone.  When pointing it at the sun, the temperature at the focus was easily capable of igniting paper instantly.

[triffid]

Thanks Zath Ero,I enjoyed the satellite info.I had a setup to get FTA but was told recently I had to update my gear.I  think you told  me everything I need to update.Triffid

[triffid]

While I'm here I want to tell you guys you can reflect up to 10X the light on a solar panel to get electricity(up to 10X the volts and watts).So a 12 volt solar panel becomes 120volts.Etc.You get the picture.Triffid