Newbie Dish Install Questions

jArgHA

I am planning to do my first dish install in the next week or two and have a couple of questions:

I read on satworld.ie that

The exact direction that your antenna will have to be pointed is dependent upon your location. The elevation angle is the angle relative to the horizon, that the antenna must be raised in order to be able to receive signals from a particular satellite.

Regarding the elevation angle - is this the angle that between the vertical axis of the dish itself and a line straight up from the ground? Or is it the angle of the arm protruding from the front of dish to LNB?

Also, my site is quite limited and it seems as though my only options for dish placement may be either front of house, or chimney. I've read that chimney is worst place that a dish can be installed - is there any satellite etiquette which says front of house is not suitable or should this be OK?

Sam Radford

Local planning regulations may limit the possibilities. Dishes can be painted to merge with their background.

Elevation is the angle between a horizontal line and a line that would joint the dish to the satellite. See http://www.satcure.co.uk/movies/dish.mov

It has nothing to do with the LNB arm or the dish plane*. If the dish has angle markings on its bracket, use those.


See "How do I know where to point my dish?" on this page:
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/satmeter.htm

*In the case of a normal "offset focus" dish.

.

copacetic

usually front of house requires planning permission, the elevation angle is of the dish itself, dishes mostly have an offsite design, so when sitting vertical they are actually pointing at 22 or 26 degree elevation. There is a scale on the mounting hardware to help you.

http://www.satelliteonline.co.uk/locating_the_sky_satellite.htm

Kashkai

With regard to the siting of the dish, you can place it at the back of the house if you mount it on a pole (which itself would be secured to the house using T & K brackets) and the dish clears the roofline and can see the satellite which is in the general area of the sky where the sun is between 10 - 11 am. Without knowing exactly what way your house if positioned, I'd suggest looking at the gable walls or if its the back of the house, try the corners where the back wall meets the gable and thus the roofline is lower (again if its a hipped roof). I believe that the mounting of dishes on chimneys is no longer carried out (even though it appeared to be the norm for years) as I imagine that the stress of a gale force wind on a sat dish which is attached to a chimney might cause structural problems with the chimney (my opinion here).

All sat dishes come with a scale to assist in the vertical adjustment, i.e. elevation of the dish. However it is only a guide and you should not get too hung up on setting your dish to any particular angle as per this scale. It is more important that you move the dish left/right (azimuth) and up/down (elevation) until you get the strongest possible signal (i.e. strength and quality). You can either use a satellite finder meter or an old SKY box or both (which is how I did it). Once you have the strongest signal, then rotate your lnb to the 7 o'clock position (if you standing in front of the dish to boost the signal a little bit more.

Oh and be patient cause unless you are very very lucky, it will take you a while to lock onto Astra 2. Using my satellite meter, I think I locked onto every other bloody satellite in the SKY before I eventually found Astra 2 :mad::o:D:D.

Tony

Heres a video which may help you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXKo0ienGgg

jArgHA

Thanks for all the tips, the install process is a bit clearer to me now!

My house is terraced so gables are not an option, although there is a 2 storey extension at back of house (so that house is now 'L' shape) - I may be able to use the side of this extension which is south-west facing but I didn't think it was suitable as line of sight to south east is blocked by the high roof... Anyhow I'll figure it out and hopefully will be able to install the dish away from the front of the house.

Kashkai

What part of your house gets the sun between 10 - 11 am? This is where the satellite is in the sky so thats where you'll need to point the dish. Once you have this figured out, proceed from there. There are ways and means of overcoming positioning problems - have a walk aroound your neighbourhood to see where other people have placed their dishes to get ideas of where you can place yours.

jArgHA

Tony wrote: »

Heres a video which may help you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXKo0ienGgg OT : (anyone know what the code is on here to embedd these?)

Excellent video!

jArgHA

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

What part of your house gets the sun between 10 - 11 am? This is where the satellite is in the sky so thats where you'll need to point the dish. Once you have this figured out, proceed from there. There are ways and means of overcoming positioning problems - have a walk aroound your neighbourhood to see where other people have placed their dishes to get ideas of where you can place yours.

I'll check the sun position tomorrow morning I think i'll also pick up a compass and check the (magnetic reading) value given to me by dishpointer.com so see the exact direction.

One other question - does the length of coax cable running from dish to receiver matter? If I need to install the dish far awy from front room at back of house it is possible I could require 30+ metres of cable - does the quality of the signal deteriorate with a longer cable?

Tony

jArgHA wrote: »

I could require 30+ metres of cable - does the quality of the signal deteriorate with a longer cable?

30m is fine if you use good quality cable

kuro_man

use www.dishpointer.com to check which direction your dish should be pointed. Try to work out a local feature to point to. It is very accuate; I have installed 2 dishes using it and it made it much easier.

Apogee

Tony wrote: »

Heres a video which may help you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXKo0ienGgg OT : (anyone know what the code is on here to embedd these?)

Tony, click on the 'YouTube' icon along the top and insert the video identifier code after the '=' sign e.g. {YOUTUBE}GXKo0ienGgg{/YOUTUBE} replacing the {} with []

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXKo0ienGgg

Tony

Great thanks

Sam Radford

Another video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qMbbi2l9JA

(You can't have too many!)