Dish replacement

I am looking into making the actual dish itself more portable.  Have seen military installations where their dishes are mesh instead of the regular fiberglass or compostive material.  Any resources avaliable?  Figure with the possible hoping to another base, it would make it easier and possibly cheaper than having to throw away the dish and keep the feedhorn assembly.  I'm still looking.

Thanks.

Thank you.  As you ask why i would want to have a mesh one verses the one they give in the package?  My thought was it was almost difficult to move my dish system with me to another fob, if it wasn't for my site lead sending my personal things including the ku-band dish i had bought figured to lose at least the dish being the feedhorn assmbly and satellite modem would be easier to ship being they were small items and the dish would be a major issue.  I figured finding an easier alternative of having to lose the dish reflector, having to purchase another one to replace it and waiting for it to be shipped and deliveried.  At this point i have 3 dishes, 2 are bw ka-systems and 1 is a ku-system which i am trying to sell off to lighten to load.  Being i might return if there is no work back in the states satellite internet is my choice verses the ones already in place which at any time can be shutdown for red river.  My choice is a bit pricey for the average person but that's the choice i perfer while i am over here in afghanistan.  Thank you for giving me an explaining of the difficult of the comparing between the metal dish reflector verses the mesh version.  The cost might be about the cost of having to replace the dish plus the shipping cost of sending it here to me in afghanistan.  Mesh would, my thought simply fold up and store easily and if i had to move suddently to another fob it would be easier as i find it to setup the dishes i have already in place with me at my pod quarters and work site so i can keep in touch with my family and friends back home.

The surface accuracy of a dish, for receive only quality, should be about 1/8th wavelength.
4 GHz (C band receive only, e.g. TV)  wavelength = 300/4 = 75 mm  Surface tolerance = 9.4 mm
11 GHz (C band receive only, e.g. TV)  wavelength = 300/11 = 27 mm  Surface tolerance = 3.5 mm

The surface accuracy of a dish, for transmit gain and sidelobe quality, should be about 1/10th wavelength or better.
4/6 GHz (C band VSAT tx/rx) wavelength at 6 GHz = 300/6 = 50 mm  Surface tolerance = 5 mm
11/14 GHz (Ku band VSAT tx/rx) wavelength at 14 GHz = 300/14 = 21 mm  Surface tolerance = 2 mm
20/30 GHz (Ka band VSAT tx/rx) wavelength at 30 GHz = 300/30 = 10 mm  Surface tolerance = 1 mm

If you have a distorted dish, the gain can be much lower (e.g. 4.5 dB low) compared with what you expected. Sidelobe performance will be appalling and you will cause unacceptable interference into services on nearby satellites.

Open wire mesh dishes will work at C band for receive only TV.
At Ku band you need a perforated metal sheet.
At Ka band you need a solid metal surface.

'Plastic' dishes have a fine wire mesh just beneath the surface or a metalised film layer under the front surface. 'Plastic' dishes with wire mesh hidden inside may only work acceptably at C band.

The feed horn, the feed support arm and the dish are designed as a whole and all three parts should be kept together.  The feedhorn has a radiation pattern of its own and 'illuminates' the main reflector surface. The illumination pattern is important to obtain the best compromise of both good enough on-axis gain and good enough off-axis sidelobe performance. The feed must aim accurately at the dish so that the edge illumination, typically -16 dB down,  is the same all around, otherwise sidelobes start coming up. The system needs to be in focus with the feed phase centre at the focal point of the dish. Rely strictly on use of the manufacturers feed support arm and assembly instructions.

At Ku band, a number of manufacturers make easy-to-carry 'flight-case' antennas, in segments that clip together.  These are high precision products with accurately aligning clips. They are often made of carbon fibre and are very expensive.

Best regards, Eric.