k3ym4st3r wrote:

a question, in order to use all the "civilian" dishes as an array they
should be placed in a predetermined shape right?

You can choose your shape and suffer the resulting sidelobes.

But you do have to determine and compensate for the baseline geometry to
within fractions of a wavelength. All the signals from the target must
add in phase if you are to get any benefit from using multiple aerials.
This is non trivial if you want to track a celestial object across the sky.

A large phased array at low frequencies discovered the first pulsar. You
will need a few acres of toy dishes dedicated to the task to stand any
chance at all. Try the sun and Jupiter instead - you should see them OK.

Regards,
Martin Brown