"Sky" satellite dish

[Sidewinder]

Hi all,

OK, I've never put up a satellite dish.

We dumped Sky a few months ago because it was expensive and we were not watching it enough.

Plus the dish mounting had rusted through and the dish had fallen of the side of the house!

I have acquired a dish & LNB (the original broke when the dish came down), the cables are OK.

I am looking at putting this up, I know roughly the direction from the original dish.

How difficult is it to align these without a meter etc please?

Missing live TV, and the dish is easier to fit than it is to repair the freeview aerial, nearer the ground and on a wall rather than on a chimney.

Help please.

@Jono Pashley, don'e suppose you have an alignment meter?...

 

[kerching]

Dear Talk Electricians Forum member

you currently lack the skills to do this in the correct manner

may I suggest taking the appropriate course possibly available from the NICkers-in-a-twist?

sorry, but it had to be said

Personally speaking?........not a clue. But I am presently increasing my skill set by removing dents from our new ( 53 plate, 40,000mile fusion) so if this is any help....

 

[Geoff1946]

A basic alignment meter is quite cheap and they are commonly used by caravaners who have portable dishes.  So, if you know a caravanner who's also a TV fan..... 

.

(No, sorry, I have the caravan but not the dish  Have just observed them.)

 

[ProDave]

This is what I used to do before I bought a decent satellite meter.

Your set top box will have a signal strength meter built into one of it's menu's.

Arrange a long coax lead and set up a portable tv outside or somewhere you can see while adjusting your dish, i.e. on a window sill.  Use the built in meter to align for maximum signal.

You will know roughly where it points from the old dish.

The important thinks is very slow movements, it has to be really accurate, so slow small movement, watch for the meter to catch up. repeat.

 

[UNG]

Hi all,

OK, I've never put up a satellite dish.

We dumped Sky a few months ago because it was expensive and we were not watching it enough.

Plus the dish mounting had rusted through and the dish had fallen of the side of the house!

I have acquired a dish & LNB (the original broke when the dish came down), the cables are OK.

I am looking at putting this up, I know roughly the direction from the original dish.

How difficult is it to align these without a meter etc please?

Missing live TV, and the dish is easier to fit than it is to repair the freeview aerial, nearer the ground and on a wall rather than on a chimney.

Help please.

@Jono Pashley, don'e suppose you have an alignment meter?...

A cheap satellite finder makes it a lot easier and helps you find the side lobes of the sat signal and makes sure you are getting the best signal

I use Dishpointer to pick the best location for the dish and avoid any fresnel incursion of the signal. This website and Dishpointer App are very good for giving a very close initial alignment

The satellite you are looking for is Astra 28.2°E 2E / 2F / 2G

When you are checking for the exact azimuth and elevation you will get three peaks in the signal strength as you move the dish you obviously go for the middle one I normally check the azimuth and elevation 2 or 3 times before I do a final adjustment of the LNB skew and lock all the adjustment

If you need a talk though it let me know and I will PM my number

 

[ProDave]

What I hate about most cheap "satellite meters" is it does not tell you which satellite you have lined up the dish on.  You will probably find 3 strong signals close together, from Hotbird and 13 degrees E, Astra 1 at 19 degrees E and the one you want, Astra 2 at 28 degrees E.

So standing behind the dish, it is the one furthest to the left that you want.

The satellite meter I use is actually a small satellite receiver and small tv screen in the box, so you can be sure when you have the right satellite as you can see a pictue on the screen.

 

[UNG]

What I hate about most cheap "satellite meters" is it does not tell you which satellite you have lined up the dish on.  You will probably find 3 strong signals close together, from Hotbird and 13 degrees E, Astra 1 at 19 degrees E and the one you want, Astra 2 at 28 degrees E.

So standing behind the dish, it is the one furthest to the left that you want.

The satellite meter I use is actually a small satellite receiver and small tv screen in the box, so you can be sure when you have the right satellite as you can see a pictue on the screen.

Each to their own never had a problem with the cheap satellite finders once I've used dishpointer.com always get it bang on with little or no fade in signal strength when it rains although I do make sure I have a good clear line of sight to where the dish needs to point

I actually hate the expensive meters as they are a safety distraction you spend more time worrying about dropping them rather than concentrating your own safety. Spent some time doing satellite datacomms many years ago and the alignment and test kit was about £5 - 6k while most jobs were done off scaffolding or MEWPs occasionally there was no option and we had to use a ladder

 

[Bruspark]

If you have a satellite box or tv that has already scanned the channels on a working dish then it’s relatively easy to set it to a channel, connect to the new dish and wave the dish around until it comes to life.  Then Finely tweak position and skew using the tv’s signal display 
 

Once pointed at a clear sky there isn’t much left to go wrong and what does go wrong can be diagnosed/eliminated with a length of spare Coax and a spare LNB (total cost £30) 

Money on sophisticated testers is IMHO better spent on terrestrial TV where signal quality is always an issue and small changes of aerial position can produce significant changes in quality 

 

[Sidewinder]

Thanks guys.

I have a good idea where to point this because I still have the original Sky dish, bracket & LNB, so I am basically replacing that with a dish, bracket & LNB from Kerch's corner shop.

The app recommended by UNG above  has given me an idea of where to point it also.

The existing Sky box has all the channels scanned, and also IIRC it does have a signal meter in it.

I haven't had chance to fit it yet, had a call out from the NHS & a few other things go wrong around the house!

Later on today I am hoping to get the original bracket down, I'll sort out fixings.

Tomorrow I have to finish something else off first then I am going to have a crack I hope.

 

[OnOff]

I recently put up a dish and LNB from CPC to go with my £18 eBay FTA box. At first I could only align with Astra 1. @ProDave pointed me in the right direction and I went 10deg left to get Astra 2. 

I do miss Heiss und Sexy though from Astra 1...

 

[ProDave]

Put three LNB's on your dish and you can have the lot.

 

[revjames]

I made a sky dish out of a dustbin lid. Not the best, in fact it was rubbish......

 

[roys]

I went to a wedding once for two satellite dishes, the wedding was rubbish but the reception was great.

 

[Sidewinder]

Well, I mounted the dish, and pointed it in roughly the right direcion.

Diddly squat on the Sky box!

 

[Andy™]

Well, I mounted the dish, and pointed it in roughly the right direcion.

Diddly squat on the Sky box!

the statellite is over 22,000 miles from here. you need to be fairly accurate...

 

[Geoff1946]

Are you sure the cable's OK?  Could it have an internal break from when the old dish fell down?  Or perhaps water entered it in the meantime?

 

[ProDave]

Work through this guide http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/satmeter.htm

There's an ebook to download there as well for more help.

 

[Sidewinder]

I still had the other bracket and dish, and it tally’s up with the direction suggested at dishpointer as per UNG above.

Now, I am not sure about my elevation, I admit.

Also the LNB slides in and out of the bracket toward and away from the dish, obviously the focal point of the parabola needs to be at the right point to enter the LNB, so I’m also not sure about that or if it will make a massive difference initially.

Tomorrow I think I’ll see if I can work through the bits on the page lined by ProDave above and see where I get.

 

[ProDave]

The LNB should not slide. If it is, something is assembled wrong. Can you post a picture?  you are quite right that it should be at the focal point and that is critical.

 

[Sidewinder]

The LNB is adjustable to be moved toward and away from the dish.

It’s this LNB:

https://cpc.farnell.com/visiblewave/vk4l/quad-lnb-with-level-indicator/dp/AP03295

If you look at it and the instructions, it is designed to slide & rotate to set it up.