Honestly, it was working when we shipped it!

We have been talking about satellite tracking over the past few weeks, and still on that same subject we unpacked a Vertex TRK-14 Beacon Receiver today and put it on the bench for testing.

RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX IT FAILED.

This was odd, because I had seen it working before we removed it from the rack at its original home, and it was packed really well for its trip to Florida. (The story does have a happy ending but I'll get to that in a minute.)

The Vertex TRK-14 is a KU Band tracking receiver, and by installing the correct frequency crystals, you can preset up to four beacon frequencies, allowing  easy monitoring of several transponders. The Vertex manual covers the choice of crystals quite well.

This is a close up of the crystal set, the three crystals just plug into holes on the circuit board and may be removed very easily. Perhaps too easily!

When the unit is turned on the front panel display shows the four preset KU band beacon frequencies and the satellite signal strength.

If the signal strength received from the LNA is sufficient, somewhere around -80dBm, the TRK will display a signal lock and the meter on the front will show the signal strength.

We began the test by setting our signal generator to the frequency matching one of the presets, and a power level of -80 dBm , but all we got from the tracking receiver was an AFC error and no signal lock.

"Hmm there is something strange here - I know that it was working before it was packed."

The first suspicion was that the crystals were loosened in shipping and so we took off the cover to check, but that was not the answer but then after a quick look around we found the culprit.

That black display connector had worked loose and was no longer making full contact, and this was the cause of the AFC alarm. So we pressed it back in place and then the TRK-14 worked perfectly.

We ship all over the world and something as simple as this will cause customer irritation, and cost us many dollars for reshipping. This is why we like to be proactive and try to solve the minor problems remotely - a simple solution keeps everyone happy.

So there was a happy ending; but this particular item does have four components that could work loose even with the best packing, and so it's worth remembering in future to make a quick inspection and look for something that simple. Of course we are always available to guide customers through the process.