Yay, we are on-line. Our biggest fear, that the wireless-gear wouldn't talk to the modem directly turned out to be a mis-informed technician. The actual set-up was quite simple, we needed to await the arrival of our newly built frame and then got down to the business of actually installing this beast the first time.
Initially, we were not getting very much in the way of any signal, until I realised that I forgot that the dish is not symmetrical and that there is an offset of 22.6°. Lowering the dish by that amount made the tuner connect without missing a beat and we could listen to the Aurora Tuning Channel beep with no problems.
Further fine-tuning got the signal maximised and the modem was switched on for the first time. The first out-going email was sent on 26 Feb 2003 at 13:19:21 - the best is yet to come.
All of the equipment associated with the connection is intended for use inside the home, the tuner for alignment, the modem, the power supply, the wireless equipment, even the video repeater. Our largest enemy is heat, so we removed the equipment from their enclosures and built them into some fire alarm warning boxes which protect them from the elements.
The boxes are bolted to the dish frame to provide a protected environment for these electronics to survive. The box fixture was changed in Barmera and again in Holwell. The initial version relied on external air to cool, six fans sucked air in and blew it out an opening on the front. This was changed in Crossing Falls.
