Can I put holes in my dish

will3001

Folks
So I have an 80cm LIDL dish which works fine but in windy weather the satellite moves a lot because of its solid form. I'm wondering if I can put holes in it similar to the standard SKY dishes. I'm assuming there should be no issues and it would significantly reduce the wind drag on the dish. Once the holes are smaller than a cm or so I should have no issues am I correct?

Thanks
Will.

P.S I got my numbers from vel=freq x wavelength.
For 10-12Ghz I'm getting 2.5cm waves. Holes less than this should not provide an issue

Wiggy

I'm assuming there should be no issues and it would significantly reduce the wind drag on the dish.

I'm not an expert in this, but my understanding is that this will not help.

I read somewhere that the air forms a cushion in front of the mesh and effectively presents a mesh dish as a solid dish, as far as wind is concerned.

Sky dishes are meshed to make them lighter, not to decrease wind resistance.

watty

yes. Sky dishes are mesh to make them lighter, cheaper to make. Holes too small to aid wind, if anything, can have higher loading!

Holes have to be about 1/10th wavelength. 2mm

Sam Radford

Holes need to be less than 4mm diameter. The holes need to be punched during or before the dish is pressed to shape, otherwise distortion will ruin its performance.

Holes have no effect on wind resistance above a certain (fairly low) wind speed. If you don't believe me, direct a powerful fan at a perforated dish and see how much air gets through.

An 80cm diameter dish has a surface area of more than 5000 square cm. If you drill only one hole per sq cm, that's over 5000 holes! The effect of drill pressure and friction heating will cause the dish to distort.

jonnygee

You need to concentrate on the bracket and not the dish, it is possible to "fix" this dish. but punching holes in it wont work.

byte

jonnygee wrote: »

You need to concentrate on the bracket and not the dish, it is possible to "fix" this dish. but punching holes in it wont work.

Doesn't help when the "backbone" of the dish is plastic IMO. I've seen a few where the wind literally rips the parabola off its backbone into neighbouring feilds/gardens.

St Senan

byte wrote: »

Doesn't help when the "backbone" of the dish is plastic IMO. I've seen a few where the wind literally rips the parabola off its backbone into neighbouring feilds/gardens.

Thanks Byte I have been sayin this a lot the satellite kit from Lidl/Aldi is pure Crap

watty

The actual receivers are OK, but nothing special. B&Q had better systems with a decent dish under €70.

will3001

So any suggestions on how to firm it up a bit....you guys mention concentrating on the bracket...should I replace it with a steel one, perhaps shorter and closer to the wall?

St Senan

Would you not consider buying a more soild dish and bracket like any of these

http://satellite.ie/acatalog/60cm_Dish___suitable_for_sky_and_BBC_free_to_view_.html

or

http://www.freesat.ie/index.php?cat=Triax_satellite_dish&ActinicSID=f3139ae976bae8b33099893f82acfd1e

jonnygee

Honestly, I have transformed quite a lot of these dishes and would guarantee that they will withstand anything that is thrown at them, Unless you are comfortable with your engineering skills, in which case you will be able to strenghten the bracket/parbola connection, then i would advise binning a lidl dish and stick with the standard sky dish.