Andrew 5.6-Meter ESA manual Overview Acquiring a Satellite, Operation

Operation

Overview

Acquiring A Satellite

After you have completed the assembly of your antenna, you are now ready to become operational. In order to operate the earth station antenna, you will need to direct it to the desired satellite adjusting both the elevation and azimuth angles appropriately. The fol- lowing procedures provide details on how to correctly position your antenna on the desired satellite.

There are several procedures that may be used to properly acquire the satellite. Andrew recommends that a spectrum analyzer be used. The following procedures provide explanation as to how to use the spectrum analyzer.

While viewing the spectrum analyzer screen, a pure noise signal as shown in Figure 4-1 will probably be observed. Additionally, some transponder signals may be observed above the noise signal as shown in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-1: Pure Noise Signal on Spectrum Analyzer

Figure 4-2: Minimum transponder Signal on Spectrum Analyzer

39 Operation