User's Manual

11
10. Antenna Alignment
SkyWay Excel contains several tools to aid with the antenna alignment process:
Audible Alignment: The radio produces an audible tone allowing antenna
alignment without the need for additional monitoring hardware.
Note: A ping, or other network traffic is needed to ensure reliable
operation of the alignment feature, in which case the Activity indicated will be
in a green state. If no network traffic is detected, the Activity indicator will be
in a red state.
Tip: It is useful to begin alignment from the Slave side whenever possible.
The pulsed tone will begin once an RF link has been established, regardless of
quality. It is useful to reduce the RF Data rate setting to its lowest value during
the antenna alignment procedure to maximize the system’s link capture
envelope/angle.
The audible repetition rate will increase as a function of RSSI; a higher value
will cause a faster rate. To assist with both coarse and fine tuning, the rate is
NOT a simple function of RSSI value. Rather, the rate will continue to increase
as long as adjustments deliver an improved RSSI. As soon as any degradation
(alignment ‘overshoot’) is detected, the rate quickly falls, regardless of the
amount of reduction. Thus, the system is useful for both coarse and fine tuning
of the antenna position.
To ensure the system will deliver adequate link reliability, it is recommended
that the operator verify the numerical RSSI following antenna alignment.
The audible function is enabled for the first 30 minutes of operation following a
power cycle. If desired, the audible function can be manually disabled using
the telnet command: set audioalign 0 or via the Alignment Page (below).
Regardless of whether the audible function is enabled or disabled, the unit will
emit a short audible tone upon initial power-up.
Alignment Page: An alternative tool to assist with antenna alignment is the
Antenna Alignment page. Navigate to Installation -> Antenna Alignment to
display the following page:
On this page is a dynamic display of the RF link state and local RSSI, in both
numerical and graphical format. In addition to displaying current RSSI, the bar
graph format has an auto-scale function which tracks the minimum and
maximum achieved RSSI values since power-up.
{Remainder of Page Left Intentionally Blank}