Talked to an older ham radio guy at breakfast and it got me thinking about dish design

I was at a diner in Tucson last Saturday and this retired engineer saw my notebook with satellite frequency scribbles. He said I was overthinking the reflector shape and that a simple offset feed works better for most free signals than those fancy prime focus builds. He pulled out a napkin and drew what he called a "cheap pizza pan setup" that he used back in the 80s to catch NASA weather satellites. Now I'm wondering if I've been making this too complicated... has anyone else gone simple and seen better results?

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nguyen.morgan1m agoMost Upvoted

Wait, did he say the pizza pan was flat or curved?