New students, new projects. This time, we are setting up a Ku band RX antenna  to support two students involvded in channel measurements for their project 1. Time for some ODU (Out Door Unit) installation. Well, we have this 1.2 m dish sleeping in a corner of the lab, sounds like a perfect opportunity.

The first step is to get the antenna and the non penetrating mount on the lab roof. Easy. And then the 240 kg ballast. A little bit tougher.

Then comes the real thing with the removal of all the pebbles so to lay the antenna pads. Without these pads, the combination of pebbles and ballast will eventually compromise the roof waterproofing.

Putting back everything in place (pads, antenna, ballast and pebbles), now it is time to assemble the LNB. A universal   Ku band LNB with 10.70 to 12.75 GHz coverage. The spectrum is split in two bands that are selected by injecting a 22 KHz tone in the cable. The polarization is controlled through the input voltage: 13 V for V pol. and 18 V for H pol. Now we’re ready for pointing … but that’s another story.