I am fascinated by this project and am looking forward to testing reception.
I can see this project having a benefit in rural outback communities in Australia and in pacific islands that do not have the luxury if the Internet.
Once there is a satellite that coverage Sydney, Australia, I can test it. I have the satellite dish and LNB and can re point it as necessary. I will get a Raspberry Pi and a DVB-S receiver.
Given that the south pacific is HUGE, the signal may be week, I will start looking for a bigger dish.
Well after a couple of years I checked back. What great progress!
I bought a patch antenna and preamp. I connected my Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR tuner.
from the store.
After pointing the antenna in the general direction, I immediately got signal.
I am in Sydney, Australia.
My mind is spinning thinking of applications in rural communities. Perhaps a self contained solar powered enclosure of some sort. A literal drop-box.
Hi Malcolm - I received my kit a month or two ago - set it up raced outside and didn’t find a signal at all (I just outside Sydney) even after an hour of trying including quite accurate pointing to the sat. I have repurposed the RTL receiver for something else, but have been meaning to try again. I was left suspecting a piece of the hardware is faulty, and since the CPU works (I can log onto it’s WiFi Librarian server) and I know the receiver itself works - I assume the preamp board is faulty as its unlikely to be the antenna. I have no real way to test this, it was just a process of elimination. I will try again to to ensure I wasn’t overlooking something, but if I have no luck I may I call on you? Hopefully you will be able to test if my preamp works for you. Cheers, Mark (Kurrajong).