Guys,
My Terrain is SEVERELY Tree infested, and I’m wondering if anyone has ever attempted to convert old C-Band Dishes to 900 MHz antennae?
There are many many old C-Band dishes laying about in my county - out of service since Dish/DirecTV came along. Seems like a feed tuned for 900 could turn these into Deep Fringe antennae helping to make up for the terrible tree losses.
Any thoughts?
Dave
If it worked, something with that type of gain couldn’t be legal.
But, it would be cool 
Just a bit more to feed this thread.
My County is made up of ridges FULL of Lots of old oaks
(Many in need of harvesting!) and at present I have a couple of links
that barely hold at -82 - Both have 17 dbi M2 yagis.
Oaks grow to about 60-70 feet so getting OVER them
so my only choice is to try too BURN Through them or
give up the Subscribers.
IF the EIRP at the face of the antenna is WAY too high
yet MOST of the energy is absorbed by the trees before breaking
to my access point - could that really be a problem?
The beam width on these antennae are about 1 degree so It seems
unlikely I’d ever really bother anyone else.
A Few more details.
My APs are at about 780 FT AGL (200 feet off the ground)
My troublesome SMs are near 580 FT AGL and 2.5 miles and 1.6 miles
respectively.
I say go for it and let us know how it worked !!
There’s the rub.
I had hoped someone had a suggestion for a
feed design. I’ve seen a “Grid” antenna with
some sort of “FEED” design, but I cannot make
out much detail.
Seems like SOMEONE Must have tried this before.
If anyone has a suggestion - I’m all ears.
Dave