2000 Dodge Dakota w/ Sat TV

Okay this is what happens when you have a nice spring afternoon, all the right parts just laying around, some friends, and some beer and pizza. :)

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The cabling is temporary at the moment as is the internal setup (hence no pictures). It was pretty much a "proof of concept" idea. I'll pretty up the cables if I decide to keep it installed beyond next weekend.

The DRD303RA receiver could be 12v I suppose but the rotor is an AC motor and thus required an inverter, so right now they're both powered from an inverter. The receiver is in the back seat and the rotor controller is on the floor under the Lilliput.

The elevation (43deg) is fixed and uncontrollable from the cab. I have to park on level ground but experimentation found there to be some reasonable flexibility. Also since the dish had to be below the window for wind load reasons I can only cover an azimuth range of about 120deg. So I just park somewhat North-facing. :)

Once parked it's just a matter of turning the rotor knob until the satellite signal locks on and the TV signal fires up!

The rest:

VIA M10000, 256MB, 20gb
PW-70a and ITPS
Custom case made of an old cellphone brick
Lilliput monitor
Yaesu FT5100 VHF/UHF ham radio transceiver with mods
RS Pro2006 scanner with serial control interface and cell mod
WiFi with 4" soldered feedline and long usb cable
Garmin GPS-III+
XM Roady
Mediacar and various radio/scanner software

Pending:

Baycom APRS modem for position reporting
OBD-II interface of some sort

My internal setup is nothing to get excited about. Besides the rotor controller and DirecTV receiver in the backseat it's nice and tidy - but boring compared to a lot of nice installs I've seen posted on here.

-- divideoverflow

You know you're a hick when you put a satellite dish in your pickup truck.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/Jake.jpg

Just a wierd thought but what about adding a gyroscope to it and then you might not have to worry about elevation problems are any of that. Doubt it would really work but it was just a thought i had.

add that to the list of **** to muck with this summer. I've got three dishes sitting arround, might be fun to get familiar with the setup process.

Ham radio stuff? be careful in NY and other states that restrict radar detector usage. Their radar detector detectors get set off by unshielded equip. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your setup.

If you wanted video while in motion http://www.kvh.com/products/product.asp?id=79

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Originally Posted by Zip-Lock

If you wanted video while in motion http://www.kvh.com/products/product.asp?id=79

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I wounder when they'll make one that works with the two way sat. internet stuff? That would bring car comptuers into a new world :)

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Originally Posted by Bob The Slob

You know you're a hick when you put a satellite dish in your pickup truck.

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Damn! Where'd you find that pitcher of my cousin Betty Sue? Last time we seen her was on a milk carton at skool!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by masher

Just a wierd thought but what about adding a gyroscope to it and then you might not have to worry about elevation problems are any of that. Doubt it would really work but it was just a thought i had.

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Yeah, that would be pretty slick. I think that's how they do it on ships but the equipment out of my reach afaik.

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Originally Posted by robiewp

Ham radio stuff? be careful in NY and other states that restrict radar detector usage. Their radar detector detectors get set off by unshielded equip.

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One benefit of having an FCC radio license is the whole preemption thing. A municipality can ban scanners in cars, for example, because only criminals would use one. But the FCC has a blanket preemption ruling that makes provisions for ham radio equipment in vehicles. Therefore a scanner that can receive 146.520 is protected. Even though there are ham bands very near radar gun frequencies (10 and 22ghz) I doubt I could get away with claiming a receiver for those bands is necessary in my truck. heh....

-- divideoverflow

That is awesome. I would live in that truck.

Do you get porn on that satillite?

The technology that makes the "in-motion" satellite tv systems work is phased-gate-array antennas. Essentially, there are a lot of little elements that point all over the place and the antenna picks the best ones to use to receive a signal at any given time. While these types of antennas are very very good for receiving, for transmitting the kinds of distances required to make the two-way satellite internet access stuff work, they are pretty poor (at least currently). They also can't adjust their polarity very well without actually rotating, and getting the right angle of polarity is necessary for the consumer two-way satellite internet service.

There are products that let you do satellite internet from your vehicle, though not while in motion -- Most people use the datastorm equipment. It's essentially a dish that automatically unfolds and aims itself (aizmuth, elevation, polarity) when you need it. It's pretty expensive, though not completely out of the budget of the die-hard rv travellers out there.

Large ships and other large vehicles that use two way satellite communication while in motion generally have some pretty big, expensive, gyro stabalized dishes housed inside of (usually) pretty big radomes. Unless you normally drive a tour bus as your primary vehicle, and have a couple hundred thousand bucks to spend on it, the technology is not yet there :)

After playing with this for a few days I've discovered that a tiny bubble level is handy for verifying level ground. I've also gotten more adept at tuning. I was in a slow drivethru last night and I freaked the people behind me out when I rotated the dish to watch catch CNN. They came over to check out the setup.

Also I've been followed by two cops so far and no grief whatsoever. Not that it's illegal, but I expected some harrassment by now.


The next step is to see about some elevation control. I'd have a lot more tuning ability with just a few degrees up/down. Any suggestions?


-- divideoverflow