Things to check on the installation of your current dish:

First things to check:

• Since the CRC's carrier was first powered on, we have had two changes affecting the carrier data rate and frequency. On May 11, 2000, the final change was made to set the data rate to 6.000 Mbps and the frequency to 4034.00 MHz. If your receiver was not online when the change was made, you will need to manually update the carrier rate. This may be done from the front panel, or from the computer terminal on the back, under the Hardware Setup.
• Verify that you have the most recent version of the software. As of 5/11/2000, version 2.8 is the latest release. Check the Application Version from either the front panel or the terminal.

Things to check on the installation of your dish:

• Is your dish at least 2.8 meters (9.19 feet) in diameter? (Dishes smaller than this cannot adequately reject adjacent-satellite signals. Larger dishes do better jobs of rejecting adjacent undesired signals.)
• Does your dish have at least the following specifications?
• Gain: >= 40 dB
• Beamwidth: <=1.8 degrees
• First Sidelobe Level: <= -20 dB (with respect to main beam)
• Cross-Pol Interference: <= -30 dB (from same satellite/on main beam)
• Is your dish in good physical shape? Does it have dings, dents, or holes from hail, tree limbs, or ice from your tower? Has it been damaged by humans, yard equipment, or animals?
• Is your dish securely mounted? Can you rock the dish by hand and see it move appreciably? Is it subject to winds blowing it out of alignment or snow and ice accumulation pulling it off-axis?
• Is your cable run from the LNB to the receiver integral? Are you using high-loss RG-59 (typically found in cable TV installations), or the much better RG-6/U, or better yet, RG-11/U? Do you have extra splices and repairs to cable cuts, etc. that could be attenuating the signal? Are all connectors securely fastened, and not heavily oxidized or corroded? Are your outdoor connections weatherproofed? Could your buried cable have been damaged or waterlogged? Is your unamplified cable run longer than the recommended 100 feet?
• Are you splitting the signal many times with a passive splitter, or are you using a powered amplifier/splitter to distribute the signal in-house? Do all the splitter's ports work? Are you using a DC block to allow only one receiver to feed power to the LNB? If you are using an external LNB power supply, is it providing the correct voltage?
• Are you using the Wegener-provided phase-stable LNB, or a similar phase-stable design? Are you using an older, less stable LNA/Block converter setup? Does your LNB's red Power LED show that it is receiving power at the dish through the cable?
• Is your dish protected adequately from local weather-related problems such as snow or ice?
• Do you have the feedhorn and LNB assemblies securely mounted, and protected from foreign obstructions such as insect or bird nests?

Things to check as you align either an existing or new dish:

• Do you have the proper instruments, such as a spectrum analyzer, available for looking at the signal as you align your dish?
• Are you attempting to simply maximize the desired signal at 1116 MHz (L-band output frequency), or are you properly minimizing the interference of non-desired signals?
• Are you simply aiming the dish while looking at the averaged E_b/N₀ on the receiver, while not truly minimizing the various forms of interference?
• Are you accidentally aiming your dish to a weaker sidelobe of the main beam?
• Is your dish truly 2-degree compliant? If it is rated as 2-degree compliant, has physical damage or normal deterioration affected its integrity to the point of making it non-compliant?
• Have you measured all dimensions to ensure that you have the correct components installed at the correct locations on the dish? Have any damages or attempted repairs to the dish maladjusted the proper alignment, shape, or size of the dish, supports, or struts?
• Do you know that the feed horn is at the proper focal length? Have any modifications been made to the feed horn assembly or support system that might affect the focal length?
• Have you checked that the dish is not warped by stretching two strings across the face and ensuring they touch in the center?

For more information on checking satellite dishes, alignment, and downlink setups, check out the following web sites:

• Tips on Antenna installations on the official Christian Radio Consortium website
• Installation of Your Downlink: Do it right!
• Satellite Receive Antenna Criteria