DIY sat install - pitfalls anyone?

Kashkai

Please excuse in advance, this detailed post but to get some opinions, I have to lay out what I want to do and any potntial problems I forsee:-

I can't get anyone to do a satellite installation in my house (bungalow), at least the way I want it, i.e. cables run through the attic and not over the roof and down the exterior walls and drilled through.

I have RG6 cable in place in the attic which I now know is cheap and not very cheerful. So I want to get good quality cable, and run it from where I propose to place the dish and connect it to the RG6 in the attic where it enters the ceiling to the tv points below. I will have runs varying from 48ft - 100ft depending on how far the dish is from the 4 tv points.

I have to place the dish at the far end of the house (i.e. the furtheset part away from the tv points, as I have a line of large trees running parallel to the living rooms that might block the satellite signal where I to place the dish closer to the tv points.

So the questions are:

1. the cable I have seen recommended is tx100. Will this suffice for a 100ft run?

2. Is it easy to connect to the RG6 cable and if so how?

3. I will have 4 tv points and so will need a quad lnb. Bearing in mind the potential signal degradation from running cable up to 100ft and using a quad lnb, what size dish would be recommended?

4. My last dish was erected on a pole at the end of the house. How big a dish could I use before it got too big and was a hazard in high winds etc.

5. Am I correct in thinking that the satellite is generally in a southerly direction? If so what is the correct azimuth (in general) as I want to know which side of the gable wall I can hang the dish without the ridge line of the roof blocking the signal. The back of the house would be best from an aesthetic perspective (moany neighbours) and to shelter the dish from high winds that generally blow towards the front of the house.

I am caught between getting SKY installed or going for freesat. If I go teh SKY route, I could leave the alignment of the dish to them. Otherwise, I'll need a satellite finder. The prices of these appear to vary wildly. Whats a good make to buy or would I be better off getting a loan of one for this once off installation.

If I've left anything out, please advise.

Thanks

David

mjsmyth

1. the cable I have seen recommended is tx100. Will this suffice for a 100ft run?

From what I have read here and elsewhere, it should do.

2. Is it easy to connect to the RG6 cable and if so how?
Generally joining cables is not advised at all, so joining to a low quality cable, would, in my opinion, be a bad idea. Any chance you can strip out the cable in the attic?


3. I will have 4 tv points and so will need a quad lnb. Bearing in mind the potential signal degradation from running cable up to 100ft and using a quad lnb, what size dish would be recommended?

Sky seem to use the 60cm dish for everything in this country. Personally, I have an 80cm dish.

4. My last dish was erected on a pole at the end of the house. How big a dish could I use before it got too big and was a hazard in high winds etc.

All dishes will be subjected to a battering from the wind if it gets too strong. My dish is on a very exposed wall and stands up well to the wind. I would make sure that whatever it is mounted to is very very stable.

5. Am I correct in thinking that the satellite is generally in a southerly direction? If so what is the correct azimuth (in general) as I want to know which side of the gable wall I can hang the dish without the ridge line of the roof blocking the signal. The back of the house would be best from an aesthetic perspective (moany neighbours) and to shelter the dish from high winds that generally blow towards the front of the house.

Ehh... ummm... ahh... There is a website that will give you that info, I just can't think of it at the moment. But yes, generally you point the dish twoards the south and then to the left (if standing behind it ).

I have never used a satellite finder... Normally it is enough to roughly position the dish like a neighbours dish and then use the satellite decoder to fine tune it.. Thats not how the pros do it (I would imagine), but it works and works well. Many boxes have an inbuilt tone that helps when aligning the dish.

biologikal

...

Kashkai

Thanks for that lads. Good starting point.

With regard to joining cables, I plan on running the tx100 cable from the dish to the point in the attic where the RG6 cable comes up from the tv point below. Therefore I'd only be using 8 feet or so of this RG6 cable. Ripping it out would mean having to replaster the walls so thats out and like I said previously, I don't want to have cables running around the exterior of the house and drilled in through the walls. My kids have a nasty habit of pulling at anything thats outside of the house like drainpipes, waste pipes etc. They'd have a ball yanking satellite cable off the wall.

Can anyone recommend whether I should actually give this a go? I'm handy enough when it comes to DIY but I know its better to leave some jobs to the pros.

mjsmyth

The actual installation is relatively easy if you are anyway handy with DIY.

This is a good article on fitting connectors and joining cables.
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/fconn.htm

Pete67

Go for it, it's pretty easy. If you can, beg borrow or steal a satellite signal strength meter, makes aligning the dish a doddle. But most of the FTA boxes I've installed have a signal strength meter with a tone to assist in alignment, which can also work well. I just find it easier to have the meter beside me when up a ladder, unless you can see the TV screen through a window or have second person monitoring it and relaying info as you adjust the dish.

Also a good magnetic compass can be useful to determine a starting point for aiming the dish. As already said use dishpointer.com to get started. And if you can fix the dish directly to a solid wall do so as a pole install will flex more in the wind.

If you are looking for BBC/ITVfree to air you will want the Astra 2A B C D satellite at 28.2 East of South. In Dublin the dish alignment is:

Satellite: 28.2E Astra 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D
Elevation: 21.4°
Azimuth (true): 139.4°
Azimuth (magn.): 144.1°

(taken from dishpointer.com)

The elevation will vary slightly with your location. Don't forget most dishes are not symmetrical - they appear to be vertical when they are in fact they are looking upwards at about 30 degrees. The magnetic bearing (azimuth) is what the compass will read when you are pointing it in the right direction.

Dish size depends on location - 60cm works for me on the east coast, may need larger one if you are further west.

Kashkai

Cheers for the info Pete.

The reason the dish was on a pole is that it was originally fixed by the previous owners to the gable wall of the house that was north facing and thus the dish couldn't "see" the satellite unless it was away from and above the edge of the roof.

I was just going to put it back on the pole and re-affix it at the same position that it was before. However, would it be possible to fix it to the side wall of the house instead providing it can see the satellite? This would save me having to get up a ladder, drill through the gable wall, try to fix a heavy pole to the wall and do all the dish adjustments about 16 feet in the air. It would be much safer doing this while being just a few feet off the ground. I could also run the cables through the air vent in the soffit so no drilling through walls.

I plan to use my old SKY box as a test bed to see if I can get a signal before I decide on whether to reconnect to SKY or go free to air.

Pete67

Should be no problem putting it on the side wall of the house. Pick the one that faces East. As the dish will be at almost right angles to the wall, make sure the mounting bracket is long enough to allow this. Use a compass at likely locations to make sure you have unobstructed line of sight on a bearing of 144 degrees. Orienteering compasses from an outdoor shop are perfect and only cost around a tenner.

Also, the Astra satellite at 28.2E is the same one used by Sky, so if you install a dish for FTA and already have a Sky digibox, you will just need a Sky card, you won't need to pay for install as the dish/lnb will work fine.

Kashkai

So the dish can be affixed to the side wall providing there's no obstructions between it and where the satellite is - is this correct? Would trees count as obstructions (I'm talking their top branches here not the trunks) or would the satellite be above them.

Or should I stop trying to take the easy way out and fix the dish up high?

Can you recommend a good place to buy a new dish, lnb, cable etc (I've seen Satworld, Freesat.ie on the net but know nothing about them). I've seen the dishes stocked in Lidl and they don't look too sturdy.

Pete67

Trees can block the signal, but unless they are fairly close, if you get the dish up fairly high on the wall you should be OK. Pick a likely spot to mount the dish, and before you drill any holes get up on the ladder so you can eyeball along a bearing of 144 degrees from the location the dish will be in. Look up at an angle of approx 20 degrees above the horizontal - if there are trees along that line then you will have a problem.

I recently bought a 60cm dish, cable and quad lnb from these guys in Blessington. No complaints.

There is a good list of suppliers here

Martin_F

I recently self installed Quad setup, 60cm dish. All as easy as any other diy job.
I would suggest trying the cable joining - but make the cable from dish to join long enough so that if you need to rip out the old stuff - your new cable is long enough to drop down the wall (within reason of course). I got away with join to existing cabling in 9yr old house (95-100% strength & quality).

I found alignment ok without sat meter - the left-right was easy enough - compas/look at sky dishes - I had trouble with the elevation (was pointing a few degrees too high - until I noticed a similar standard dish was pointing slightly lower than mine). Once you have even a few % of signal it is easy to adjust to 100% providing small adjustments & methodical. I'm sure the meter makes it quicker.

Kashkai

Once again, thanks for the pointers guys. Really appreciated. I'm sick of an indoor ariel, crappy reception and RTE:(

It seems to be simple enough compared to other projects I've tackled so I'm looking forward to getting a good tv signal back at last.

mjsmyth

@Prosperous Dave

If you need a hand, let me know. I have quite a bit of free time thses days due to my current working arrangement

Whilst I am far from a pro, I have put up 6 or 7 systems over the last year or so.

Just thought I would make the offer.

MJ

Kashkai

Thanks for the offer MJ. I'm busy building some new Utility room storage this weekend but plan to tackle the satellite the following weekend. If I get stuck, I'll pm you for help.

Thanks

David

Cuchulain

Dave if you have conduit running down with your RG6 cable you could use it to ferry your tx100 cable down instead. Ive done this numerous times using good quality twine attached to the existing cable and pulling it up through the conduit. Then using the twine to ferry to good cable back down.

Worth a try if your reception is poor.

Kashkai

No conduits I'm afraid. The wiring was affixed to the blockwork and plastered over. In my last house, I had plasterboard over studwork and it was much easier to install/move wiring. Pretty much stuck with what I have now. Hindsight is a bitch :rolleyes:

This is why I propose installing tx100 cabling from the dish to join with the last 7 feet or so of RG6 cabling that runs from the attic down the internal walls to the tv point. It would be so much easier to run cables externally and drill through walls to the tv points but (a) wife would freak and (b) kids would remove as fast I could install!!!:D

Sam Radford

I recommend reading this:
http://www.The-Cool-Book-shop.co.uk/installing_sky.htm
Lots of useful tips.