Usually, cooling is not for higher gain, but for lower noise. Considering gain, you just want to stabilize the temperature, at whatever reasonable value, like 30C. Cooling will reduce noise, but in an amateur setup, water condensation and frost are a quite unsurmountable problem. Also, if the antenna is at room temperature, the thermal conductivity of the cable between the antenna and the LNA will be a problem - low electrical loss and low thermal conductivity usually don't dance together.
Marko Cebokli
2025-09-30 05:50, je 'b alex pettit jr' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers napisal
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How do you set up cooling? Do you just cool the LNA or do you cool the waveguide too? So for example i use a cantenna for my waveguide - if I wanted to Peltier cool my system, would that mean that I need to somehow cover the entire cantenna and LNA and cool the lot or is just enclosing the LNA in a casing a cooling that sufficient? Then what temperature is ideal? When i am doing astrophotography, I use an Atik 16200M camera which cools to 45 degrees below ambient. I live in UK woth temperature usually in range 15-20 C but can vary 0 C to 30 C. So I cool to -10C which means I can get that temperature at almost any time and the stable single temperature allows me to use a single set of dark frames and flat frames. Does radio astronomy work the same way? Can we calibrate with a single calibration standard used all the time as long as we cool our LNA (or LNA plus waveguide depending on answer to my question above) to the same temperature each time?
Sorry for all the questions but this thread fascinates me as I would love to know how similar radio astronomy and astrophotography are in this regard.
Andy
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Well... I have decided to not purchase /try the Peltier Cooler from Ada Fruit. I am using a Discovery Dish with Hydrogen Line feed. Velcro strapping the large chunk of metal to the plastic case... enclosing the dipole would block E&M waves and probably not help much at stabilizing temperature.. not to mention problems with the weather.I still have my old WiFi dish... so maybe I will set it up again and try to rig it with lna temp stabilization..... which is weather protected.....
Just a point with respect to Noise Figure (Not amplifier gain) ; I would suggest that in most of our cases the antenna system temperature is dominated by side lobe contributions and small changes in NF with temp will not be significant.
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
US cell +1-304-790-9192
Jamaica cell: +1-876-456-8898
From: 'b alex pettit jr' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers [mailto:sara...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2025 10:30 AM
To: 'Andrew Thornett' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
Subject: Re: [SARA] Re: Peltier cooling for LNA with Discovery Dish
Ref Marcus' comments for the answer
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Does anyone know what the front end IC chip is used? I am asking as am too lazy to pry the shield off and look with the scope.
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
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Does that mean that the best way to reduce this noise figure is to extend the sides of the dish, in the same way that Alex has done with his dishes, to reduce signal coming off the ground?
Andy
From: 'b alex pettit jr' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: 03 October 2025 11:56
To: 'Lester Veenstra' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [SARA] Re: Peltier cooling for LNA with Discovery Dish
Hello Lester :
10000% Agree
Alex
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Thanks I see some standalone amps with this also
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
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Any way to get the side log gain down with respect to main beam is effort well spenf. The quick and dirty test to get a few square feet of echsorb foam or equicalent and put in front of dish for Hot Measurement, remove and measure the delta down to :cold Sky” temp of antenna. With antenna pointed overhead. And improving antenna for better delta will tell you if you are in the right direction. Now the question of where to get the absorging foam No clue here.
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
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Any way to get the side log gain down with respect to main beam is effort well spenf. The quick and dirty test to get a few square feet of echsorb foam or equicalent and put in front of dish for Hot Measurement, remove and measure the delta down to :cold Sky” temp of antenna. With antenna pointed overhead. And improving antenna for better delta will tell you if you are in the right direction. Now the question of where to get the absorbing foam No clue here.

Very cool both figuratively and literally... The sun is setting here in South West Colorado behind the La Plata Mountains. The temperature has already dropped about 10 F. One can se e my lna gain increasing...... 



=================================================================================


Interesting but why is a good rf absorbing foam not closer to ambient (nominal 290K)? Is it possibly not filling the main beam?
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
US cell +1-304-790-9192
Jamaica cell: +1-876-456-8898
From: 'b alex pettit jr' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers [mailto:sara...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Friday, October 3, 2025 12:41 PM
To: 'Lester Veenstra' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
Subject: Re: [SARA] Re: Peltier cooling for LNA with Discovery Dish

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Any reason why 2 inch does not approximate room temp?
Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
US cell +1-304-790-9192
Jamaica cell: +1-876-456-8898
From: 'b alex pettit jr' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers [mailto:sara...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 8:30 AM
To: 'Lester Veenstra' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
Subject: Re: [SARA] Re: Peltier cooling for LNA with Discovery Dish
2" of the Eccosorb works ...

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Am I miss reading this?

Lester B Veenstra K1YCM MØYCM W8YCM 6Y6Y W8YCM/6Y 6Y8LV (Reformed USNSG CTM1)
452 Stable Ln
Keyser WV 26726 USA
GPS: 39.336826 N 78.982287 W (Google)
GPS: 39.33682 N 78.9823741 W (GPSDO)
Telephones:
Home: +1-304-289-6057
US cell +1-304-790-9192
Jamaica cell: +1-876-456-8898
From: 'b alex pettit jr' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers [mailto:sara...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2025 9:01 AM
To: 'Lester Veenstra' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
Subject: Re: [SARA] Re: Peltier cooling for LNA with Discovery Dish
?? It Does.
On Friday, October 10, 2025 at 07:38:58 AM EDT, 'Lester Veenstra' via Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Any reason why 2 inch does not approximate room temp?
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