How to: Install a satellite dish (For Freesat, Free-to-view, Sky)

PyeContinental

Recently I put up my own satellite dish and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was. I think that anyone who is competent with general DIY tasks will find the same. There were a few things I learned along the way, so I've decided to write this to help anyone who is thinking about installing or has decided to install a satellite dish themselves.

To put up the dish, you'll need a ladder, a spirit level, hammer drill, a screwdriver and a couple of spanners or a ratchet and sockets (13mm and 10mm). To help point the dish, a compass is handy to find the rough bearing. A "Satfinder" signal meter is useful too, and can be found on ebay for around a fiver.

I bought a package on ebay which consisted of a 60cm elliptical (Sky style) satellite dish, an octo (8-way) LNB, mounting bracket and L-shaped pole, fixing bolts, rawlplugs, 100 metres of RG6 satellite cable, 20 F-connectors and weatherproof rubber cable boots, and two boxes of cable clips, which was only €80, including postage from the UK to Ireland. You may be able to find even better value out there, especially if you don't need or want an 8-way LNB. A quad LNB would probably be enough for most people (you need one connector per satellite tuner, and there are two tuners in a PVR such as the Humax Foxsat-HDR). Regarding the cable, CT100 cable is better quality as it uses copper shielding whereas the RG6 uses a silver coloured foil.

I followed the assembly instructions that came with the dish to screw the mounting bracket to the back of it. 10mm bolts are used throughout. After you have the dish assembled, you can attach the LNB to it by pushing the spigot (bung at the end of the bracket which holds the LNB) into the end of the arm. There are 5 numbers writen on the side of this bracket to make it easy to set the correct angle of skew for the LNB. For most of the Republic of Ireland and south west England and Wales, you should set it to number 2. For Northern Ireland and most of the rest of England, Wales and Scotland, you should set it to number 3. However, you can experiment with this later and see what gives you the best signal.

A nice advantage of a satellite dish over a tv aerial is that it doesn't have to be at a great height. Unless there are any tall objects such as trees or houses very close to you, mounting it on a wall which has a view of the southern sky will be just as good. You will probably have a choice of two or maybe even three walls on your house. This is safer for you, as you don't have to climb on to the roof, and will probably mean that the dish will be more sheltered from wind and rain. It's a good idea to put it up high enough so that it's out of reach of people from the ground.

To fix the mounting plate and L-shaped pole, you'll need to drill holes for four 10mm plastic wall plugs. Use a spirit level to keep it straight and mark off your drilling points. 13mm bolts are used to hold the mount in place. Once you fit the dish on to the pole and secure it, you can then go on to align (point) it correctly.

Although you could use an accurate compass to help you point at the right satellite, there are several very useful websites which use google maps to help you align your dish:

http://www.satsig.net/maps/satellite-tv-dish-pointing-uk-ireland.htm
http://www.dishpointer.com

In the case of FreeSat, this is the Astra2 satellite group at 28.2E. This is the same satellite group that Sky uses to transmit its channels from.

You could use a compass to find due south, and then move the dish back 28.2 degrees towards East. However, using these websites, you can choose your location and the satellite you want to point at, and it gives you all the figures you need to align your dish correctly. It will also draw a map of your location and draw a line along where you should be pointing. This can give you a surprisingly good guide to line up against, especially if you compare to any landmarks or road intersections.

For the most accurate reading, I used a normal GPS car satnav to find out my coordinates, from the "current location" screen. I then put these in as my location. If you don't have a GPS, you can choose your approximate location on the map, or you can also get pretty accurate coordinates by going to google maps and zooming in on your location, then right clicking and choosing "Center map here", then right click again and choose "What's here?". The GPS coordinates will then be displayed in the search bar.

As for the vertical alignment of the dish (aka: elevation, or beam elevation) you can let those websites calculate this figure for you. In Ireland it's going to be somewhere roughly between 20 and 22 degrees. The elliptical style dish looks like it's almost horizontal when it's correctly elevated, but because of the shape of the dish and the way the LNB is skewed, its focus is actually much higher. There's a gauge with notched markings on the back of the dish which allows you to tighten the bolts off at whatever the correct degree of elevation is for your area.

At this point, the “Satfinder” tool is useful for fine tuning the dish alignment. The general method is to connect one side to any connector on the LNB, and the other to a battery pack. You turn up the sensitivity dial until you hear the squeak and the dial reads max, and then turn it down until you can just barely hear it and it is only slightly registering. Then you move the dish left and right ever so slightly, finding the middle point between where it cuts out and comes back. Once you have the centre point, lock off the horizontal axis (this is also called Azimuth by the way). You can go through the same process to fine tune the vertical axis (beam elevation) if you like also. Check the strength and quality readings on your satellite receiver to confirm.

There are actually lots of satellites all along the southern sky, from east to west. They are all in geostationary orbit at the earth's equator. This “belt” of satellites is known as the Clarke Belt, in honour of the science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke, who once predicted that satellites like these could one day be used for telecommunications.

While trying to align your dish, it is quite easy to think you have it pointed at the right satellite, but actually have it pointed at something else by mistake (often Astra1). Keep this in mind if you appear to be getting a strong signal but can't seem to tune anything in. Satellite signals can also bounce off windows and metal, such as garage doors and carvans. Bear this in mind too if you seem to be getting a signal but it's not coming from where you think it should be.

Once you have your dish pointed correctly at the Astra 2 satellite group, you should also be able to pick up transmissions from the Eurobird1 satellite because it is so close, at 28.5E. There are some channels which you may wish to tune in manually, and you can get a list of them all with their tuning info at http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.htm

You might need to put a bit of thought into how to route your cables into your house and the best route to take. The type of tiles on my roof allow me to lift them very slightly so I can slide the cables underneath them and into the attic. Once there, I can distribute them where they need to go around the house. It's good to keep some slack outside and below the poiint of entry so that water is less likely to be ducted along the cable. Try not to make the cable runs much longer than they need to be though, so as to keep signal attenuation to a minimum. Your receiving equipment actually powers the LNB in your dish by sending a voltage up to it through the satellite cable too.

In addition to using the protective rubber boots at the end of the cables to the LNB, I also cut an empty plastic bottle in half and used some elctrical tape to fix it over the connection points to help further shelter it from wind and rain. I put a cap in the top of the L-shaped pole and wound more tape around that. I smeared copper grease on all the mounting nuts and bolts to help protect them from rusting also.

tomslick

Good info. This should stop the usual "how to" questions. Thanks mate.

snaps

Nice post mate. Can i just add for reference that www.dishpointer.com is a very usefull website for aligning a dish, as it gives you landmarks compass directions etc for the relevant satellite your trying to find (Using google maps)

PyeContinental

Thanks guys, it is nice to know the typing was appreciated!
I did actually mention dishpointer.com, snaps!

OK-Cancel-Apply

That's some nice clear info there. Might also be worth mentioning the different dish sizes and the beam strength zones, i.e. 50cm minimum for zone 1, 60cm for zone 2 etc..

Finne1993

Excellent post, well done, think it might be a good sticky for any diy'ers on Boards who fancy taking a stab at installing their own set up.

PyeContinental

Thank you. I'm very happy I took the time to write it up now.
Yes, a bit more about the dish options would be good alright.
I suppose some pictures would be good too.

snaps

PyeContinental wrote: »

Thanks guys, it is nice to know the typing was appreciated!
I did actually mention dishpointer.com, snaps!

Yes you did, good point. I missed that reference. Hope this helps people.

Samson

Sticky.

DERICKOO

great post man

izzygill

Well done,great post

PyeContinental

Thanks again guys. I'll be really pleased to think that this might de-mystify the process of putting up a satellite dish for some people who might have been thinking it was beyond them.

jd6677

Very useful guide for people. Fair play for taking the time to write it.

JD

mudahawn

thanks great help

GhanGee

I recently installed a disk and pointed to Astra 2/Eurobird group of satellites (28.2º East). Had no major problem to get "locked" to Astra2 (yesterday I even tested on Eurobird1 as well) but when I tried to ADD CHANNEL and entered all required parameters for [FONT=Verdana, Arial]Frequency, Polarisation, Symbol Rate and FEC then "Find channel" showed me nothing (No channels found)[/FONT]

FYI, I have SKY+HD BOX with Both, "Signal strength" and "quality" are about 80-85%. I know I locked to the right satellite as I compared Network ID. Of course I did use different parameters to add channels for each satellite.

Could this be a problem with possibly outdated parameters to add FreeSat channels on those satellites?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions

Tigger

i just installed the hd ross system from homebase

its nice it was €120 and it went up easy
thanks to all you guys that answered the questions others asked (i used the search function) ye made it easy

one thing i used that i found else where was the satelite instillation app on the ipod
i found it great for deciding where to put the dish looks amaing to (mabey i'm easily impressed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AFtcgYRcu4&feature=player_embedded

anyway thanks to all the lads that help out people on this forum i'll probably never post here so i wanted people to know how much help they've been

regards
tig

GhanGee

alrite, I got sorted. Few days ago I found Troubleshooting doc which's explaining basic problems and I only red it yesterday, so I RESET the device (later used option RE-BUILD as well) through ENGINEERING menu (Service-0-0-1-Select) once done the "no satellite found" message disappeared. With white SKY (expired) card I can watch about 200 channels (80% junk) and managed to ADD some FreeSat (BBC/ITV) channels, the HD ones have excelent quality.

Now I hope I can fix problem with RECording too, anyone any idea? Is there a way to record "any" channels (even non-Sky) on Sky+HD box ? I'd like to use the hard drive once I have it there 8-)

Btw: I used the same iPhone/iPod app (although I had neighbours dishes as a reference)

tazzzZ

Ok was looking for some help. I am after buying a Panasonic G20 tv which has a freesat box installed on it. I also have Sky+HD. My question is this: Can I use my SkyHD wiring and dish to get freesat while still using it for the Sky?

John mac

tazzzZ wrote: »

Ok was looking for some help. I am after buying a Panasonic G20 tv which has a freesat box installed on it. I also have Sky+HD. My question is this: Can I use my SkyHD wiring and dish to get freesat while still using it for the Sky?

yes.
you will need to run an extra cable from the lnb.

Edg3

Followed your instruction to a T and while the set up flew by we've yet to get a signal on the tv We're using one of the Walkers Combi Boxes from Power City. Was grand to set up, used an app on my phone to align the satellites but still our scans are picking up nothing.
Im more a computers guy then a TV guy so Im ballparking all my guesses

AtomMcC

Edg3 wrote: »

Followed your instruction to a T and while the set up flew by we've yet to get a signal on the tv We're using one of the Walkers Combi Boxes from Power City. Was grand to set up, used an app on my phone to align the satellites but still our scans are picking up nothing.
Im more a computers guy then a TV guy so Im ballparking all my guessethat norts

I had the same problem. I used the Satellite Director app. I eventually found that something was putting my phone compass off and I had the dish pointing in the wrong direction. I'd bet it was either the dish or the ladder.
I resorted to trying again a little further away from the dish and it worked.

Edg3

I'll give that a try, with that app, I was using Satellite AR on Android.
We used the websites and they said the direction to point it, we got it close as dammit (using my compass) but still nothing being picked up.
Satellite is set to "2" on the LNB, we have the dish at 25degrees (so the sites said) but when we run the scan nothing shows up. It only shows one satellite to. Its just a pain, climbing up and down to the dish every time we need to make an adjustment. Told them we should have got one of the detectors but NO!

AtomMcC

Edg3 wrote: »

I'll give that a try, with that app, I was using Satellite AR on Android.
We used the websites and they said the direction to point it, we got it close as dammit (using my compass) but still nothing being picked up.
Satellite is set to "2" on the LNB, we have the dish at 25degrees (so the sites said) but when we run the scan nothing shows up. It only shows one satellite to. Its just a pain, climbing up and down to the dish every time we need to make an adjustment. Told them we should have got one of the detectors but NO!

Skew setting "2" on the lnb sounds right. Elevation depends on where you are but my setting is around 21 degrees. Hope you get it sorted. I got one of the Sat finders to fine tune the dish. Easy to use and ensures perfect reception. You really need the dish pointing at the correct satellite first though.

Edg3

We got it sorted today. I used the app on the phone, sat right behind it and tweaked and twisted and fiddled til we got it exactly right. Working now 100%

fighterman

Hi,

I am trying to put in Freesat in a holiday house that my mother has recently bought and done up.

This house is in rural county Kerry. What would the recommended size of dish be?

Is there a guide to appropriate dish sizes for the different regions of Ireland?

Thanks

The Cush

fighterman wrote: »

This house is in rural county Kerry. What would the recommended size of dish be?

A standard 80cm dish will do the job.

PyeContinental

Have a look at the Astra 2 coverage maps here:
http://www.insatinternational.com/astra_footprint.php

The very west of county Kerry is right on the periphery of the area that recommends getting a dish larger than 60cm. However, the standard 60cm elliptical Sky dish will probably work fine, even in rain

This is the dish you need from Satellite.ie:
http://satellite.ie/acatalog/Sky_Freesat_60cm_mesh_dish_including_quad_lnb.html
You get the dish including the LNB which has four connectors. You need one connector per standard satellite tuner box or two for a satellite recorder box.

EDIT: I see The Cush recommends an 80cm dish, so perhaps he knows from experience that a standard 60cm dish may not be enough to guarantee uninterrupted reception on all transponders (groups of channels) in bad weather.
Here is an 80cm dish:
http://satellite.ie/acatalog/80cm_Dish_by_Andrews_.html
They can tend to be buffeted a bit more in the wind and so I think can be more likely to be moved out of alignment more easily. However, the dish itself (not fixtures) are less prone to rusting.

walus

Just refreshing the topic...

I've got the freesat up and running with a reasonable signal strength and quality (65-75% for both) on almost all channels. However some channels (kids stuff) can not be received and the box produces black screen and no signal message. I had the dish lined up on one of the bBC channels and optimized for it. Can it be that for others the signal is not strong enough? I always thought all freesat channels are transmitted from the same satellite. I'm bit puzzled with this.

Thurston?

What size dish are you using, & what part of the country are you in?

walus

Cork. Size of a dish - not sure it is a regular Freesat/Sky dish. Everything was working fine in the previous house.

Thurston?

walus wrote: »

Cork. Size of a dish - not sure it is a regular Freesat/Sky dish.

So the kind of elliptical, perforated dish pictured here? There are 2 sizes of Sky dish: zone 1 & zone 2. Zone 2 is recommended for Ireland, although I've noticed some zone 1 dishes installed. (Not by Sky themselves I wouldn't think.)

Zone 1 is about 45cm top-to-bottom, zone 2 about 60cm. The correct LNB skew setting for Cork would be no. 2 on the Sky LNB.

amdaley28

Measure across the diameter of the dish & see what you have.
If you have an 80cm dish there is no reason why you shouldn't get a high % on all the channels on 28.2 in all weathers.
What % are you getting on that BCC channel ?

walus

I haven't changed the dish or the LNB which were working perfect in the previous place. The LNB skew is the same and set at 2. Again I'm not sure what size of dish this is but will check it. The BBC channels are 75% signal strength and 65 signal quality.

After checking a shop that I got the dish from years ago I can confirm that it is a 60 cm dish.

walus

Also it seems that the one channel in question (kids used to watch it - TinyPop) is actually transmitted from Eutelsat 28.5E. I wonder is that 0.3 of a degree that important?

Gerry Wicklow

The BBC channels are on one of the strongest signals. Far better to use the weaker ones from Eutelsat 28.5 for alignment on the basis that the strong Astras have enough lee-way.

amdaley28

walus wrote: »

Also it seems that the one channel in question (kids used to watch it - TinyPop) is actually transmitted from Eutelsat 28.5E. I wonder is that 0.3 of a degree that important?

28.2 is extremely strong.
I would suggest that the dish is slightly off line.
Also check the quality of your cable & F connections.
Look for kinks or damage to the cable & stray strands of the copper braiding at the F connectors.
Have you got a signal meter of any kind ?

Thurston?

walus wrote: »

Also it seems that the one channel in question (kids used to watch it - TinyPop) is actually transmitted from Eutelsat 28.5E. I wonder is that 0.3 of a degree that important?

The fraction of a degree shouldn't make any difference with a dish that size, as its beamwidth is relatively wide. More than likely you haven't got the BBC channels as good as could be either.

As mentioned already, it's more than likely the alignment could be improved. As for cable quality, I would think unless you have really poor cable, that aspect should only become apparent on the kind of long runs from dish to receiver that wouldn't be encountered in the typical domestic setup.

walus

Thurston? wrote: »

The fraction of a degree shouldn't make any difference with a dish that size, as its beamwidth is relatively wide. More than likely you haven't got the BBC channels as good as could be either.

As mentioned already, it's more than likely the alignment could be improved. As for cable quality, I would think unless you have really poor cable, that aspect should only become apparent on the kind of long runs from dish to receiver that wouldn't be encountered in the typical domestic setup.

It's a brand new cable that was put in with the new irony for the entire house. BTW what is a cable attenuation for Satelite signals per meter?
I'll get at it as it's just bugging me too much and I do not do things half way.
I used.the Satelite Finder box that with the scale and buzzer to set it up. I thought tough that having the receiver tuned in on individual signal makes all off the rest sorted as well.

Thurston?

walus wrote: »

... what is a cable attenuation for Satelite signals per meter?

I used.the Satelite Finder box that with the scale and buzzer to set it up. I thought tough that having the receiver tuned in on individual signal makes all off the rest sorted as well.

Makers of decent '100' type cable quote attenuation figures in around 3dB per 10 meters, at the middle of the satellite IF band. (IF = Intermediate Frequency, the frequency band used between LNB & receiver.)

Mightn't be much point comparing receiver signal readings, but any I've seen will have well over 80% for strength & quality on BBC channels from a Z2 Sky dish. (But I'm not anywhere near Cork.)

dirdeen

I am using a satellite dish with decoder picking up freeview from Astra. I want to add an additional tv. Will it work if I split the signal at the TV. My dish currently only has a single LNB so it would be a lot easier for me to put a splitter on and run the cable from there as opposed buying a quad LNB and running from the dish. I can if needs be but would prefer not to.

The Cush

dirdeen wrote: »

I can if needs be but would prefer not to.

Each satellite tuner requires a separate feed from the LNB for independent operation.

dirdeen

The Cush wrote: »

Each satellite tuner requires a separate feed from the LNB for independent operation.

Will it just not work or will the signal be reduced resulting in a weaker signal?

snaps

dirdeen wrote: »

Will it just not work or will the signal be reduced resulting in a weaker signal?

Won't work full stop. You would only be able to watch the same band on both receivers. Eg. Low vertical, low horizontal, high vertical or high horizontal.

The Cush

dirdeen wrote: »

Will it just not work or will the signal be reduced resulting in a weaker signal?

A satellite feed is made up of 2 bands (Hi and Lo), these bands are further split into 2 polarisations (Hor. & Ver.). When you select a channel this selects the band and polarisation where that particular channel is located at the LNB. If the feed is split one receiver changing channel could also change the channel on the other receiver.

shakeymathuna

My chimney-mounted satellite dish has moved for the second time in 12 months due,probably ,to the high winds we are experiencing . As a result I have lost my signal. It has been suggested to me that I should have the dish moved to the side wall of the house. However this location is at the other side of the house from the two tv rooms and would require cabling across the front and back of the house which could be unsightly.

Is it possible to leave the existing cabling in place at the chimney and run a connection to the dish on the side of the house ( across the roof )?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

The Cush

shakeymathuna wrote: »

Is it possible to leave the existing cabling in place at the chimney and run a connection to the dish on the side of the house ( across the roof )?

Yes, using proper F-connectors and joiner and waterproofing it using self-amalgamating tape

shakeymathuna

Thank you. Much appreciated.

Granite Head

Hi
hoping to connect a sat dish and saorview antena. House was recently re-wired with coax cable to a number of rooms originating from attic + 2 more coax cable from attic to outside wall. Presumably the two outside coax cables are to be connected to the dish and antena. I was wondering how I connect the other end of these two coax cables to the "room" coax cables, if that makes sense?

The Cush

How many cables to how many rooms do you have?

Granite Head

The Cush wrote: »

How many cables to how many rooms do you have?

7 rooms wired (one cable each)

Tony

You will need more cables to the dish , up to 8 satellite outputs can be accommodated using an octo lnb but a multiswitch might be easier as it only needs 4 cables from the dish and one from the aerial.