We had recently put a new station on the air in Evanston to replace a translator.  Initially it had been fed via the Internet over a Wireless ISP but this proved to be a bit unreliable.  Our traditional method for feeding transmitters is via satellite.  I purchased a small satellite dish to install at the site to provide the audio feed.  The Internet based feed would remain as a backup.

Cinder blocks in the back of the truck to weight down the satellite dish mount

 Today is an absolutely gorgeous day up on Medicine Butte

The mount is assembled…Next step will be to assemble the satellite dish.

 
This is a 1.2 meter dish–the smallest I would ever want to put at a site for reliability reasons.  Typically I install a 1.8 meter dish or in some cases as large as 2.4 meters.

 

The azimuth/elevation adjustment mechanism is attached to the back of the dish.  This will secure the dish to the mount and allow the dish to be pointed.

Next step, attach the arms and feed point to the dish.  The active electronics which receive the actual satellite signal will be mounted on the end of these arms.

The feed horn and LNB (low noise block downconverter) are attached.  This is the portion of the dish that actually receives and amplifies the satellite signal.  Careful assembly is critical here to ensure reliable performance…

A closer view of the LNB and feed horn…

This particular feed point has a second feed should this dish ever be used for transmit purposes as well.

The dish is mounted on top of the building…

 

A closer view of the dish atop the building…The cinder blocks are not entirely in place yet to hold things down.

 

Additional cinder blocks are placed to keep the dish mount secure during high winds.

 

A shot of the spectrum analyzer display while pointing the dish…This is our satellite carrier.

 

Excellent performance.  I typically like to see both of these numbers around 15 but no lower than 12.

 

A view of the transmitter and satellite receiver in the equipment rack…

 

Your tireless engineer sits back for a few moments to enjoy a job well done.

 

What an absolutely gorgeous view!

 

Greeted by a beautiful sunset as I head back down the hill for the night…

Another view of the sunset.  Just another day in the life of a busy broadcast engineer.