hi I'm Kip Kay you know I'm not a
hoarder regardless of what some people
say but as a gadget guy I have a hard
time throwing anything away that's tech
related like this old satellite dish
that was once bolted to the house and
served the purpose of snagging TV
signals from over 22,000 miles in space
bringing them back down and converting
them into high-quality TV images pretty
amazing technology if you think about it
well this old dish has seen its day at
least for that purpose but it's time to
bring it out of retirement and put it to
work with some cool new alternative uses
and I think you're gonna like
to make the long-range Wi-Fi cantina
you're going to need a can in this case
it's a can of baked beans since we need
the can to be Mt I'll open up the can
and get to work
eating the beans I tried to enlist my
friend Domino to see if he'd help me out
not a chance
you don't like baked beans Domino now
okay
the can is empty I've removed the label
and completely cleaned out the inside
now this can measures three inches in
diameter and about five inches in length
which will work for this project so
we're going to take the length and
divide it by four and we get 1.25
that'll be the distance from the bottom
of the can where we need to make a mark
I'm going to drill one hole to get
started but I'm gonna need the hole to
be bigger so I'll use a larger bit and
drill it out using a pair of snips I cut
some of the rough edges off of that hole
and then using my dremel and a sanding
wheel I made it nice and smooth then I
picked up a UHF coax socket that'll
mount in the can and it fits snugly
inside the hole in my garage I found
this length of 12 to electrical wire
which has copper wire inside so I'll cut
through that insulation and extract a
small piece of copper wire about two
inches in length and this small piece of
wire fits perfectly inside the coax
socket so we'll fire up the soldering
station and we're going to solder this
piece of copper wire inside the socket
it's been trimmed so this piece of wire
reaches just the center of the can when
the socket is installed now I could have
used four screws to hold this socket in
place but I decided that hot glue would
be the best alternative and much easier
to use so I ran a bead around that hole
and put the socket in place and held it
till the glue dried okay our Wi-Fi can
is done and now it's time to get to work
on that dish the first step is to get to
the lnb or the low noise block
downconverter this is what collects a
signal from the dish I'm going to remove
the two screws that hold it in place and
remove that L&B back out to my garage
where I found this old galvanized pipe
bracket with metal that bends pretty
good so I'm going to be using this for
the bracket
and we'll also need a couple of hose
clamps after bending the bracket in
shape I'm gonna place it over the can
and using the hose clamp I'm going to
tighten it down and secure it to the can
and the other smaller hose clamp will
hold the other end of the bracket to the
existing mount on the dish now that all
worked out good looks pretty cool the
last step is to screw in the coax cable
into the socket and I removed an antenna
on my older Wi-Fi router and screwed the
pigtailed connector into the antenna
jack then it was just a matter of
pointing the long-range Wi-Fi Cantina
towards a Wi-Fi signal in this case it's
a free Wi-Fi hotspot offered by a local
fast-food restaurant I grabbed that
signal from about a half mile away and I
was able to use some free Wi-Fi plus
with closer Wi-Fi you'll get a good 5 to
15 DB gain there's a good chance you've
seen those parabolic mics on the
sidelines of football games or other
sporting events let's make our own the
first step take apart the lnb whoa ants
nasty they were living inside this lnb
kind of made me jump alright well I
removed the housing for the lnb and also
this little white cap for this project
I'll be using this standard microphone
with a quarter-inch jack I ran the mic
cable through the hole in the lnb
housing and set the mic in place Wow
this might fit perfectly inside the lnb
housing now to finish this off and make
it look right I used my dremel with a
cutting blade and cut this housing in
half then I snapped it back in place and
the other housing and and this helps
secure the microphone and it was just a
matter of putting the lnb back on the
existing satellite post and I'm good to
go
I took it outside and put on a pair of
headphones and slowly started turning my
spy mic when you make your own you'll be
surprised at the long distance sounds
you can pull in I have this little
over-the-air HD antenna as a backup in
case my other sources of TV go down but
I gotta be honest I put it outside and I
was only able to grab 3 HD channels
little disappointing but what do you
want for 10 bucks so it's time to turn
this into a long-range HDTV grabber
like all of these projects it will
require the removal of the lnb and in
this case we're going to want to mount
the
antenna facing into the dish so the dish
can grab the signals and shoot them into
the TV so for this I'm using a
three-quarter inch square aluminum tube
it's hollow on the inside and because
it's aluminum it's perfect for outdoor
use the idea here is to mount the
aluminum tube on the satellite post so
for starters I'm going to drill two
holes in the end of the aluminum tube I
match the spacing of the existing holes
that are in that post now it's time to
look for some screws so I brought out
one of my containers couldn't find
anything grabbed another container and
finally found two perfect sheet metal
screws to mount the tube okay I've
screwed in the tube and it's good to go
next
I ran the wiring coming from the antenna
down through the center of the tube and
removed one of the small screws in the
existing antenna bracket drilled out a
hole and found another longer screw and
mounted the antenna to my new aluminum
extension tube okay my long-range HDTV
grabber is ready time to bring it
outside and with trial and error I aimed
it towards my local TV stations now
check this out scanning for local
antenna channels I didn't find three
channels I ended up finding 40 digital
channels with my new long-range HDTV
grabber and the picture quality is
amazing this old satellite dish has been
out of use for quite a period of time
and the paint has gotten all chalky and
comes off when you rub it it's open this
next project it's got to be cleaned
I took it outside and hosed it down real
well and then a brush with some soap and
I got all of that chalky paint off I
have a roll of silver air-conditioning
duct tape that has a mylar finish and is
very shiny
I began by applying strips of this
silver tape to the dish I continued
along until the dish was completely
covered in this silver tape and I kind
of smoothed out any bubbles it's very
reflective even with the lighting I have
here in my room I'll be using the same
pipe bracket I used for the Wi-Fi
project earlier this time I straightened
it out and secured it to the aluminum
tube with a bolt and nut and lock washer
and I'll be using a small white chain I
grabbed from my parts bin using a coat
hanger I made a rounded bracket to fit
around this old pot and I attached the
chain to
I hung it from the aluminum tube and
then took it outside in this bright
Florida Sun I lined it up so the beam
from the Sun was aimed directly at the
bottom of the pot to test out the
satellite solar cooker I put some butter
in and then cracked an egg into the pot
after a few minutes the egg was starting
to cook a few minutes later cooked some
more and a few more minutes this egg was
cooked one egg cooked from the free
energy of the Sun hey not bad hmm a side
of baked beans would go great about now
the satellite solar cooker would be
great for camping or just surviving
without power in fact this project
prompted me to listen to a new audio
book deep survival true stories of
miraculous endurance and sudden death I
downloaded it from audible who supports
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Kipkay now when you do that not only do
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helping me make more videos for you
that's audible.com slash Kipkay thanks
for watching we'll see you next time