Relative merits of antennas

Per

Does anybody have information on the merits of Wingard antennas as compared to a solid aluminum or fiberglass dishes?

Channel Hopper

Wineguard used to be a good make, but I believe no longer manufacture.

They did make solid (petalised ) and mesh versions of antennas from 70cm all the way to 3.7m, fixed and with polarmount

Do you have a particular model in mind ?

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Per

No particular type in mind, the used antennas I have inquired about all are made of segments of perforated metal plates. Perforation with holes of about 0.1-inch diameter. Do they offer the same effective gain as solid antennas of same type?

BIGDISH

Per , are you in Europe?

Channel Hopper

A mesh dish will not perform as well as as a solid at Ku for three reasons

1) The design of the segmented antenna for mesh usually means the parabola is formed by compression in the frame, rather than by manufacturing process, leading to performance as a result of quality of installation.

2) The flexibility of the antenna surface under normal wind conditions, the parabola has a built in distortion, better for survivability, but not for performance

3) The mesh holes can affect signal through aberations and breakthrough of undesirable noise from the rear of the reflector

If you calculate about 75% of the efficiency of a solid dish, you wont be far off.

__________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"