Rule #1 - Antenna positioning is critical to good performance. Radio waves cannot penetrate through the earth, so place your antennas as high as possible to provide the best line-of-site condition. A telescoping tripod antenna mast is useful in positioning your antenna for best performance. Also, make sure that your antenna is properly tuned for the frequency you are using.

Rule #2 - Maintain your equipment in good condition. Field failures are most often caused by broken cables and connectors. Inspect cables and connectors frequently. Replace worn cables and damaged antennas before they shut you down in the field. It is always a good idea to have spares available.

Rule #3 - Avoid interference through monitoring the available frequencies prior to using your radio modems. For the RFM96 product family, we recommend you use a radio scanner, available from Radio Shack or others, to monitor the frequencies. With the PDL product family, use the patent pending AutoBaseTM technology to select the best channel. Press the channel button until the small "b" is displayed. The PDL will scan all available channels, and select the channel with the lowest interference level. Please note that the AutoBaseTM algorithm takes one minute per channel analyzed.