Hardware · build

Eight-foot dish rebuilt as a satellite station

A salvaged eight-foot satellite dish mounted on a concrete post with a custom metal base, a wheelchair motor for azimuth and a linear actuator for elevation. It tracks satellites and pulls weather data from GOES.

Build sheet

Dish: 8ft, found online
Azimuth: Wheelchair motor, metal gear
Elevation: Linear actuator
Mount: Concrete foundation, steel post

Can I build this?Expert · AI 2/5 · $1,000–3,000

Difficulty: Expert
AI-buildability: 2/5
Time: Several months
Cost: $1,000–3,000

Parts

Wheelchair motor Linear actuator

Tools

welderconcrete mixing equipmentdrillhand toolsmultimetercomputer for tracking software

Starter prompt

Based on "Eight-foot dish rebuilt as a satellite station" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/eight-foot-dish-rebuilt-as-a-satellite-station

You are helping me set up a motorized satellite dish that tracks satellites. Write a tracking controller for a Raspberry Pi that reads TLE data for GOES weather satellites, computes azimuth and elevation for my location, and drives a motor controller for both axes. Add a wind-speed input that moves the dish to a safe vertical position when a threshold is exceeded.

Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).

Story

Cranktown City found an eight-foot dish online and built a motorized base for it as a first step into satellite reception. The dish sits on a large post and concrete foundation, with a custom-fabricated metal base housing the receiver electronics and the drive system. A large metal gear turned by a wheelchair motor controls azimuth, and a linear actuator handles elevation.

Fitting the dish to the frame was difficult because it is not uniform in shape and must be mounted in one specific orientation. Once assembled with a circularly polarized antenna and computers running, the dish tracks satellites and downloads data from GOES weather satellites. A wind sensor drives the dish to a vertical position when wind speed passes a set limit.

The source notes that this is more effort than needed to receive satellite signals, and suggests the installation could be useful for radio astronomy later.

Resources · 1

Build video