Talk about stress. I can now honestly say that when it comes to working in the IT field I have done it all. These past few days I have been installing a satellite internet system for our resident office in Dahuk, Iraq. When I say install, I mean build the dish that comes from Satan himself from the ground up. Can you tell I didn't have a great time doing it. LOL.
When we I was building the dish, assembling the frame and mounting the dish on the brackets, I didn't realize the previous owner was he DEVIL. What you have got to realize is we don't have any of the fancy equipment the pros have to site the dish in.
Let me explain the process a little.
First someone provides the GEO coordinates for the location the dish is to be provided. You see this was my first mistake. I took somebody's word for the location. The location is then sent back to Segovia, the company providing the equipment and service. They then give an elevation for the BUC and LNB (geeks no what they are) to site the antennae.
Now please take a minute to think about the task at hand. Satellite 23,000+ miles away (size of a desk, small desk), one man trying to find it with a 1.2 meter magnifying glass. Tough enough as is!!! No throw in that I was given wrong latitude. Off by about 30 minutes. So my location appeared to be about 200+ miles further south. Making the angle of elevation more than what it really needed to be.
So we construct the dish and aim it in the general direction and elevation (in this case 136 azimuth and 23 elevation + 10 degrees). Then we slowly rotate the dish left and right by hand. It is very tough to move also. Drop it a half a turn on the elevation screw. Repeat or and over!!!!!!
Now another IT person is setting in front of the PC watching the signal strength. Back ground noise registers as .03000 volts. You see a lot of that number. Come to find out the siting software in faulty and there are some undocumented tricks to get it to work properly. Discovered this after troubleshooting my coax cable for 6 hours. See Satan was at work from almost the beginning. LOL
So on walkie talkies. (borrowed some) you hear the following conversation.
"Turning antennae"
turn, drop, turn, drop
"Anything yet"
"NO"
turn drop, turn drop
"NO SIGNAL YET"
2 hours later
"GO BACK GO BACK"
Guess what? Wrong MF satellite!!!!!! Really fustrated at this point!!!
2 1/2 days later, we finally found the right bird. I am grumpy, tired, sore and really stressing. Rest of work took remainder of third day, but who cares we already missed our ride to the next site.
God Bless,
Frank
2 comments:
Shouldn't be much more difficult than working with Phil.
Just joking Phil.
Glad to read that you are OK and do the good work.
Scott
That sounds impossible! No wonder it took so long. That's why you and your smarts are there and I'm here pushing paper. Pictures are beautiful!
Stay safe and take care.
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