Hi all! It sounds like two different schools of thought are at work here.
One is build it. Definitely cheep. Recreating a microwave receiver with a final if that the Dongle can use shouldn't be a problem. We need: An antenna Preamp/filter Mixer LO generator Filter on the output of the mixer to the radio. Cant' forget a signal source to test this stuff. Most of this can be had on epay. Some like the horn antenna can be made for practically nothing. Please offer comment here!! Found lots of good info and some software at w1ghz On the high end, this includes the block down converter option. Looking around, it's a crap shoot on this part.
Other is buy. Not so cheep.
The same approach I want to use can be applied to any other of these sats that work at microwave. Lets keep kicking the can down the road. Norm n3ykf BTW: I do have a 141t with the 8555a plugin conx unknown over 1gHz