Seeing Satellites with DIY Microwave Camera

I converted a portable satellite antenna into a microwave imager or Ku band “camera“. This small motorized dish scans around and records the signal strength to create a heat map of microwave radio energy. It’s ideal for viewing satellites in geostationary orbit, finding RF leaks in a room, or creating images from reflected microwave energy. The hardware I used is a Dish “Tailgater“ antenna, the 2014 version with onboard USB A port. I’ve seen other version of this antenna with different (or no) USB port, but this is the one I was able to connect to my computer and control with serial port commands. More information on this project is available on my website: I’ve also put my code onto Github, free for anyone to use! (If you do use my code, I would love to hear what you did with it&#