repaired UWO antenna

One of my tasks this weekend was to sort out the GPS antenna problem for the University of Western Ontario.

Their computer and the all-sky camera were working fine. But they were not getting their GPS time signal. Something was wrong with the antenna.

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Friday: I took a look at the UWO equipment in the CAO furnace room. I was surprised, as I traced the active USB cable, to find it lying haphazard along the top level of our storage shelf. It could easily be snagged. On a future visit, I'll reroute that cable so it cannot be jostled.

I found the black round Global Positioning Sensor receiver in the furnace room window. I was surprised to find attached by magnet only to the window security bars. Round bars... If someone snags the cable, it will dislodge and change the alignment of the receiver. Worse, it will detach and come flying into the room. On a future visit, I'll develop a way of securely mounting that.

I was also surprised to find the small receiver on the right side of the window, the side with a screen. The window screen is dark and perhaps only made of plastic. But if it's metal, I would think that is not good for the signal. I moved the antenna to the left screenless frame.

After I reseated the cables, I sent an email to the team. Told them to call me if they wanted me to do anything else.

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Saturday: Professor Peter Brown of the Meteor Physics Group phoned the CAO and asked for me. I was in the GBO working on TheSky6.

Despite my poking and prodding, he said he still could not see the GPS. We decided to move the cable to a different UPS port on the server. It worked! He saw it right away.

Whew. Easy fix.