Can anyone tell me what's inside of these unbiqutitous LNB things that I see on all the direct TV/DSS dishes? Is there a nice GaaS FET in there?
I have several of these things from my ill fated TV viewing experience and I was thinking that they might yield some UHF FETs that might be useful for a GPS antenna amplifier that I'm thinking about building.
If so, how hard is it to scrounge parts out of them? Is it all sealed up and usually destroyed when you take it appart?
Don-WA5NGP
I like ripping stuff apart too, but you can buy a brand new transistor for 1.45 at Digi-Key BFP640FE6327
Does the job. If you need a slightly lower NF, use NE34018 (1.65) Qty
tks Frank, wow that stuff is getting cheap. Next thing I'll convince myself to buy a existing built working commercial active GPS antenna too. But I've got to find some excuse to keep my garage workbench lined with miscellaneous test equipment.
D> snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
transistor
There is one or two, possibly 3, very nice GaAs FET SHF / EHF transistors designed for 14 GHz, 18 GHz or 30+ GHz, and zero or more Gunn diodes. They may not be very useful at 1.2 / 1.5 GHz used for GPS. Should be easy enough to get to though.
It might still be worthwhile to open one up and get some hints about component layout, etc. But unless your time is worth $0, new components seem pretty cheap.
"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@hovnanian.com:
I suspect modern LNBs are all ceramic substrate,thick-film conductors and inductors(microstrip),with a few chip caps soldered on,and one or two active semi devices.
The dishes themselves are useful if you want to fiddle with long range wifi. I've actually paid money for used dishes, but only because nobody would give me any. :-(
This is a standard channel master dish used in a 5.4Ghz digital network.
This antenna mates with a dish.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required