Q Tom, KF6DRI, asks, “Direct TV has changed over from Primestar and left me the old 24-inch Primestar dish. Can these dishes be used on the amateur microwave bands?”
A Yes, your Primestar 24-inch dish should work just fine on 1296 MHz and higher microwave bands up to at least 10 GHz. In chapter 1 of the UHF/Microwave Projects Manual, Paul Wade, W1GHZ, describes how to design a feed for these types of offset dishes. Paul also has a microwave Web site at http://www.w1ghz.cx.
From QST October 2000
