The mesh covering is metaphorical, rather than actual. I watched the dish on its back while as a group of small children rolled the dish back and forth and trampled holes in the mesh. That's the reason I was able to ask for it. "Please take it away," was the manager's reply to my query.
Now, I need to re-mesh the dish, but I need to decide what 'flatness' ('true-ness') the surface should be. There has to be a formula, that encompasses things like: frequency of operation, curvature or focus distance, etc.
Peter,
I'm sure there some on here than can answer your questions accurately.
But I can tell you my experience...I acquired an open framework dish, It's about 35". I cut gores the size of the framework, with a slight overlap, and wired them as tightly as I could to the frame....I cut them about 2" longer than the radius, and the extension conformed nicely to the curve of the dish...In an attempt to get a 39" dish...
I homebrew all my feeds, and it worked very successfully on AO40 at 2.4 gigs...You did not mention a frequency, and of course that is very important..
73, Dave, WB6LLO dguimon1@san.rr.com
Disagree: I learn....
Pulling for P3E...