Tiny 20cm SMW dish (and an old BSB dish)

[timo_w2s]

I've managed to acquire a teeny tiny 20cm satellite dish thanks to cad60 on the Finnish Huoltovalikko forum. He also had an old BSB dish too which was no longer needed so I couldn't say no to that, as it'll go nicely with my existing Channel Master BSB dish.

The Swedish Microwave OA-200 was originally designed for picking up analogue services from the Tele-X satellite in the 90s. I first saw one of these dishes on a house in Sweden in 1992 and was amazed at the size of it. I've always wanted one of these ever since then so when @Kveys mentioned cad60 over on Huoltovalikko might still have a brand new one stashed away in his shed I thought I'd enquire about it... and here it is!! Massive thanks to cad60 for this cool little bit of satellite history.

Over the next few days I'm going to put it together and attach a modern LNB to it to see if I can actually pull in any signals on this thing from some of the stronger satellites. Of course Tele-X has long gone into graveyard orbit and the LNB that came with the dish isn't going to be very useful with a noise figure of 1.4dB, narrow band of 11.7-12.5GHz, and fixed circular polarisation (I'm guessing it's left circular as Tele-X was left only, I believe).

I will post some more pictures and signal reports later on.

This dish is so small. I can cover it with my hand! It makes the small BSB dishes and modern Sky dishes look huge.

For now here are the "unboxing" photos...

 

[timo_w2s]

And here are the instructions that came with it.

 

[Lazarus]

Fascinating!

I bet you can get good results on a handful of Birds with that.

 

[dankargo]

Look at that little baby!

Will be interested to see if you can pick anything up with it, I imagine you could probably catch 13 & 19.2E on a clear sky day.

 

[timo_w2s]

Bare in mind I'm in Helsinki at the moment, but I think I'll be testing it in the UK too later on - I might just about manage to squeeze this into my suitcase. ;)

I imagine one of the problems today will be the wide beam-width of this small dish. Interferences from nearby satellites operating on similar frequencies might cause unwanted noise. Back when Tele-X was transmitting this wasn't such an issue but the skies are more crowded these days.

 

[Jamie A]

How cute

Look forward to seeing your results.

 

[Archive4]

Lovely looking little dish, shame about the watch, was that free with Blakes 7 episode 9?

 

[Lazarus]

 

[Archive4]

Oh! Servalan, at her best, or worst, not sure which?

 

[RimaNTSS]

Unbelievable @timo_w2s !!!! Nice one. Can you get another one for me? Would love to have it installed alongside with some bigger dishes.

 

[timo_w2s]

Lovely looking little dish, shame about the watch, was that free with Blakes 7 episode 9?

Oi! Leave my watch alone. It's a Polar M400 sports watch and it works very well, even if it has a bit of a girly white/70s looks about it.

 

[Llew]

What a nice little sprog.
More of a saucer than a dish

 

[timo_w2s]

Unbelievable @timo_w2s !!!! Nice one. Can you get another one for me? Would love to have it installed alongside with some bigger dishes.

What?! I could swear a while ago you where mocking me for even bothering to use my old 35cm BSB dish as it was too small. ;)

Seriously though, I'm not sure he has any more but will check.

 

[RimaNTSS]

This one should be an exception, it is smaller (or equal) than subreflector of Fibo 90. It is extremely small and therefore perfect! Appreciate if you can additional one.
Add: I know, I have said "No more dishes", but this one could be really exception.

 

[timo_w2s]

This one should be an exception, it is smaller (or equal) than subreflector of Fibo 90. It is extremely small and therefore perfect! Appreciate if you can additional one.

That reminds me, I did wonder if it would be possible to use this dish as a subreflector for a larger dish although I don't know if there would be much point.

 

[RimaNTSS]

I did wonder if it would be possible to use this dish as a subreflector for a larger dish

Unfortunately his dish is cut out of parabola and can not be used as subreflector for larger dish to make it Gregorian design. But if you are looking for Fibo subreflector I can offer you one as a replacement of your 20cm dish. ;)

 

[A nonymous]

I use an Inverto Black multiconnect lnb with my BSB mini dish, it fits perfectly and does give good results. The dish is currently stripped down to recondition it and i will post pictures when its up and running.

I am hoping to use it on 30w if the signal is strong enough as its the nearest satellite to where it would have been originally pointed at when it was looking at Marcopolo 1 & 2 at 31w.

Here is an ebay link to the same lnb. It fits nice and snug into the original holder the old pointed Marconi lnb would have sat in.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LNB-INVERTO-SINGLE-SLIM-MULTICONNECT-23mm-38mm-1SORTIE-/300526627258?hash=item45f8c869ba:m:myG0fxfIRSZUZQVvZTV-1Mg

 

[timo_w2s]

I use an Inverto Black multiconnect lnb with my BSB mini dish, it fits perfectly and does give good results. The dish is currently stripped down to recondition it and i will post pictures when its up and running.

I am hoping to use it on 30w if the signal is strong enough as its the nearest satellite to where it would have been originally pointed at when it was looking at Marcopolo 1 & 2 at 31w.

Here is an ebay link to the same lnb. It fits nice and snug into the original holder the old pointed Marconi lnb would have sat in.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LNB-INVERTO-SINGLE-SLIM-MULTICONNECT-23mm-38mm-1SORTIE-/300526627258?hash=item45f8c869ba:m:myG0fxfIRSZUZQVvZTV-1Mg

Great minds think alike - I've already tried one of my Inverto Multiconnect LNBs on the BSB dish to see how it would fit after seeing that LNB. Good to hear it works.

Incidentally, that old Marconi LNB that came with the BSB dish looks just like one of my first LNBs I had that covered the lower band for Astra 1A. Took me back when I saw that.

 

[timo_w2s]

Unfortunately his dish is cut out of parabola and can not be used as subreflector for larger dish to make it Gregorian design. But if you are looking for Fibo subreflector I can offer you one as a replacement of your 20cm dish. ;)

Sorry, I'm not parting with my baby.

 

[Captain Jack]

Nice! I am still looking for my 55m Fibo...