Teardown: Philips SX1019 LNB

[wkb]

Today I spent EUR 2 on a surplus LNB for DVB-S reception.  Although I know how they work I had never seen one 'dissected'. So...

The type is a Philips SX1019.  The grey circular 'pills' are the 2 local oscillators, one for high and one for low band reception.
The bottom view of the cast aluminium body shows 2 Torx-head screws to tune these oscillators (they are closest to the F-connector).  The gold plated pins in a white Teflon washer are for horizontally and vertically polarised signals.  2 FETs are used to select one or the other.  Lots of microstrip 'components' too.

[NiHaoMike]

Jeri Ellsworth shows how to build a radar from old satellite dishes:

[wkb]

I took some more pictures, the second one nicely shows the horizontal and vertical 'pickups'

[amyk]

Always interesting to look at microwave stuff because of how different things are. Most people who are otherwise knowledgeable in lower-frequency electronics would not easily see how a ceramic puck next to a few PCB traces is enough to form an oscillator.

[SeanB]

Microwaves - where electronics becomes plumbing. Or rather, where most of your parts come from the hardware shop, and are assembled with a gas torch.