Fabricating a rectangular waveguide WR650 for hydrogen line detection with SETI Horn of Plenty

[Andrew Thornett]

For my Horn of Plenty, I used a surplus commercial WR650 waveguide bought off ebay. Such surplus items are hard to find. Much easier is to fabricate your own - and much cheaper.

Rectangular 5 litre cans such as the attached can be surprisingly close to the right dimensions in some cases - so worth looking at.

More information at https://www.astronomy.me.uk/what-size-oil-tin-about-right-to-make-wr650-waveguide-for-hydrogen-line-detection-using-a-seti-horn-of-plenty

In the past. I have discussed dishes for hydrogeb line work. These can work very well - and some members here - particularly Alex, Jason and Eduard, have made some spectacular dishes, and it is worth looking at their previous posts.

However, Hydrogen horn antennas are acknowledged as being very forgiving, with less need to tune and get alignment just right. So, they are also worth a look if you are thinking of making your own hydrogen line radio telescope and haven't as yet invested in a dish.

We will discuss these more at the next Monday evening Hydrogen line meeting.

Andy

[Cathal O'Donghaile]

My cantenna is a 5L can

[Andrew Thornett]

Brilliant! Would you like to give a talk on fabricating that at the next hydrogen line meeting on a Monday evening?

Andy

Sent from Outlook for Android

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From: sara...@googlegroups.com <sara...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cathal O'Donghaile <cathalod...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2026 7:48:41 PM
To: Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [SARA] Re: Fabricating a rectangular waveguide WR650 for hydrogen line detection with SETI Horn of Plenty

 

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