I’ve been playing with sat dishes here and there and every time I see a Fiberglass one the thought keeps occurring – how does something radio transparent reflect radio waves?
I had a few theories ranging from
- Metalised Paint
- Metalised Gel-coat
- Metal Fibre reinforced glass
- Metal Impregnated resin
- Foil Layers
- Wire Mesh
I had the opportunity to drill a water drain hole in one today and the answer became obvious (at least for the Prodelin brand dishes)
There is a fine wire mesh similar to fly-screen under the gel-coat. It is very fine aperture to cope with the GHz frequencies involved. Hopefully it’s stainless, it looks fairly silver, so it wont rust from the edges in.
So when you are cleaning your fiberglass dish of the mould they seem to accumulate – you don’t have to overly worry about abrading the gelcoat. The mesh layer is reasonably well protected.
Another question answered.