All I have so far are some sketches for the design I will use. However, before ordering some of these parts I will test the dish (with an SDR, the feed horn and some amplifiers) to see if its possible to create this telescope.
Yes I know its been a while but I just haven't been in the mood for building radio telescopes recently. Anyway, a few months ago i order this LNA (*32 dB* Gain), which finally arrived, but I haven't tested it yet. I attached it to my horn antenna which will be used as a feed for the 1.2m dish, which I already have.
I built the feed horn by soldering an HVAC adapter to a baby food can, and drilling a hole in the side where I inserted a 90 degree coaxial F-connector and soldered it in place. The dimensions for this aren't perfect, but hopefully it'll work well enough to be able to receive the hydrogen line.
All I have some far are some sketches of the design I will use for this telescope project. However, before buying any parts, I will test out the dish with my SDR and some LNAs - to see if I can receive a signal at 1420MHz.
I also have an alternative design. I don't like this one as much, since it will probably be more difficult to build, and wouldn't necessarily provide better results. Here it is: