How to: Install a fixed satellite dish

[digidude]

This thread is going to be built up over the next week or so and should finish by being a complete start - finish guide to helping you set up your own satellite dish.

First of all you are going to need some tools (stating the obvious i know):

Ladder, remember, working at heights can be dangerous, and you are going to be drilling and carrying equipment up and down a few times, if you dont feel confident then use the services of a professional installer.

Drill, if using a mains powered drill please use an RCD to avoid any possible accidents.

Spanners, the most common sizes when working with dishes are 10mm and 13mm.

Spirit level, to make sure that your mounting bracket is straight, a small pocket level is best.

Drill bits, normally 10mm for plastic plugs and coach bolts but look at your fixings first and a long 10mm bit to drill the wall or window frame to get the dish cable into the house.

Compass, to help you alaign the dish.

Sharp knife or wire cutters, to make off the ends of the cables for the connections

Hammer, to clip the cable to the wall


We will start by assuming that your dish has already been assembled, is going to be mounted on a south(ish) facing wall and that there are no large trees or other obstructions to block the view of the dish.

once you are sure that your ladders are secure (se pic for a safe angle) and have decided on a suitable location for the dish you can attach the bracket to the wall. this is normally a square plate with an 'L' shaped pole welded to it but there are many different types available. Hold the bracket to the wall and drill your first hole, now you can either attach the bracket by this one fixing and then check the level and drill the other 3 holes or you can hold the bracket in place and once you know its level mark the wall using a pen. either way once you have drilled the 4 holes and attached the bracket you can now mount the dish onto the bracket. (it helps when fixing to the wall that if using an 'L' shaped pole type bracket that it points up, especially if using a large dish, make sure the pole is sealed so it wont collect water)

now armed with spanners take the dish up the ladder (be very carefull, especially if its a bit windy as they tend to be really good at catching wind when you're not expecting it) and you should be able to hook the bracket on the back of the dish over the wall bracket pole (if its pointing up) tighten the bolts so that the dish is holding in position but can still be turned left and right and up and down without too much force.

You are now ready to alaign the dish

 

[digidude]

Alaigning the dish 1

Now that the dish is on the wall it needs to be pointed in the correct direction to pick up the required satellite signals, this is called the alaignment of the dish. there are two things that you need to get right to pick up the signals, the first is the east-west direction (azimuth) and the secont is the up-down direction (elevation). if either of these are out then you will not get a picture

We can use your computer to work out all of these angles (you have all got one i hope) and a compass to make them real.

if you visit Multimap and type in your postal code (as highlighted in red in pic 1) you will be given your latitude and longitude under the map that it shows you, you will need the figure in brackets (as highlighted in pic 2)

write these down and round them to the nearest whole figure

 

[digidude]

Alaigning the dish 2

Install the attached software and then refer to the attached pictures

one of them is a satellite map, it lists the name of the satellites as well as their orbital position in degrees east or west, you will need this position once you know what satellite you require to use in the software

the other is a screen shot that i have added numbers to to explain the different parts

1, this is where you enter your latitude
2, this is where you enter your longitude
3, this is where you enter the orbital position of the required satellite

4, this is the reading that you need to set your compass at to alaign the dish
5, this is the elevation that the dish needs to be set at, most dishes have a scale on the bracket attached to the back
6, this is the 'skew' of the LNB, we will cover this later

write down the readings in boxes number 4 and 5 and armed with a compass and a few spanners its back up the ladder

 

[digidude]

Alaigning the dish 3

attached are pics (sorry about quality) of a compass set to 152 degrees and pointed that way and a dish elevation bracket set to 25. you turn the dial of the compass so that the 152 mark is on the arrow, then you turn the compass to the needle points north, the arrow is now pointing in the right direction, at the satellite. on the dish there will be a small mark that you line up with the scale on the bracket.

climb the ladder and using the compass you want the arm of the dish to point the same direction as the arrow on the compass, if you hold the compass too close to the dish though it will move the needle, even aluminium dishes do this so you are not going to be spot on, using the scale on the back of the dish set the elevation according to the reading given by the software.

your dish is now roughly alaigned, but dont put the ladder away yet, you want the signal to be at the maximum possible, right?

 

[digidude]

Connecting the dish 1.

Assuming that you do not own any sort of satellite alaignment tools (meters) you are now going to need to connect the dish to your reciever and use the on screen signal display to fine tune the alaingment of your dish. To do this you will first need to run a cable from the dish site to your reciever, normally under the TV.

To begin with you need to have a good quality cable, the digital signal will suffer if you cut corners and its only your viewing pleasure that you will be ruining, so it is worth spending that £5 more (approx per 50M) on proper satellite cable than making do with aerial cable. starting from the dish, making sure theres at least enough to reach the end of the LNB arm, start to clip the cable down to the TV position. Be carefull when using these clips as the nails are quite small and they can fly in all directions, eye protection is advised (but never used). Once you are within a few feet of the TV (but you are on the outside) you will need to drill to allow the cable to pass through the wall to the reciever.

If you are going to drill through the wall behind the TV then unless you are 101% sure of where you are drilling use a small metal / voltage detector first. its no good having 500 new channels if you got no electricity to power the reciever cos theres a hole in the ring main cables.

Using a long 10mm drill bit start to drill the hole behind the TV set, if you angle the drill bit down slightly (about 10 degrees) this will make sure no water can travel along the cable through the wall cavity from outside. once you have drilled through the wall go back outside and finish clipping the cable untill you reach the hole. its always best if the cable enters from below so if you need to put a small loop in the cable its for the best (again to stop water traveling along the cable). Feed the cable through the hole to inside the house and using a tube of sealent seal the hole around the cable. Cable hole tidys are available to make things look a bit better (see pics)

Back inside the house connect your satellite reciever to your TV as per the instructions, this is usually done by a scart lead directly from the back of the reciever straight into the TV set. Turn the reciever on and following the manufacterers instructions locate the signal display using the on screen menu.

You are now ready to connect the dish, once you have put on the F connectors.

 

[digidude]

Connecting the dish 2.

How to fit 'F' Connectors to coaxial cable

Pic 1

About 25mm from the end, use a knife to cut around the outer plastic covering. Be careful not to cut the braided copper wires inside! Pull off the plastic cover. Separate the braided copper wires then twist them together in a "pigtail".


Pic 2

Cut off the exposed metal foil shield.

Cut off the white plastic insulation to expose the inner wire core, leaving about 3mm of white plastic insulation. This reduces the risk of the braided copper wires touching the inner wire core which must never happen!


Pic 3

Now for the previously unpublished trade secret!

Push the cable end into a jar of petroleum jelly. This will help weatherproof it and make fitting the plug much easier. This only really needs doing to the outside end. (i never do it myself though lol)

Pic 4

Push the copper pigtail back over the outer sheath and screw an 'F' connector over it as far as it will go, holding it with a piece of cloth. Make sure that the inner wire core can not touch the braided copper wires. Cut off the exposed pigtail.

Pic 5

Use sharp cutters to cut the inner wire core to leave about 3mm exposed. Make this cut at a 45 degree angle to make a point. This makes it easier to push the wire into a connector without risk of damage or bending the wire. Be careful not to cut yourself on this sharp point!

Repeat the above for both ends of the cable

 

[digidude]

Connecting the dish 3.

'F' connectors outside MUST be sealed to keep water out, otherwise it will run through the cable, damaging the inside of the LNB and the satellite receiver. Water runs VERY quickly through coaxial cable by "capillary action".

Using insulation tape or cable ties attach the cable to the dish bracket, now leaving a bit of slack bettween the bracket and the dish attach it to the LNB arm. And finally, leaving a small loop to allow water to drip off the LNB and cable, connect to the LNB (see pic of dish). Now you have to seal the connection.

Be sure to use Self Amalgamating Tape. this is a special tape made of rubber that once stretched will stick to itself and shrink to make a weather proof seal. Cut off about four inches (100mm) and peel off the plastic backing.

Pic 1

Wrap the tape around the cable, just below the 'F' connector, stretching it strongly as you wrap in a spiral. Overlap by at least half the width of the tape so it bonds to itself. Continue to stretch and wrap it around the cable then the 'F' connector all the way up to the body of the LNB.

Pic 2

Now stretch the excess length and spiral it back down the cable to finish off the joint neatly. once you get back to the bottom of the joint sytretch the tape and once it breaks squeeze it into the seal to finish.

As you stretch the tape to twice its normal length, you create energy that makes the tape melt into itself to form a solid rubber tube. You won't believe this stuff till you try it. There's NO glue. Also great for repairing leaking hose on car or washing machine!

Also attached is a picture of how NOT to seal an LNB

The only way to remove it is by cutting with a very sharp blade.

 

[digidude]

Connecting the dish 4.

Back inshe house now and you can connect the cable to your reciever (which should be on the signal display screen). You should (hopefully) have a slight signal showing. On the 2 displays attached the top bar is the signal strength and the one under it is the signal quality. You want both of these as high as you can get them, so it might help to have someone looking at the TV to tell you when the bars are moving.

First off to start fine tuning the dish hold the face of the dish (the big circle) and only very lightly bend it (it wont damage it) left and right and up and down. This should cause the signal on the screen to improve. Once you have worked out which way to move the dish to improve the signal move it very slightly and again bend the face. Keep doing this untill any way you bend the face causes the signal to drop. You have now alaigned the dish, you just need to tighten it. First of all tighten the elevation bracket on the back of the dish, taking care not to move it.

Now you need to tighten the dish onto the pole. Be carefull here because if you just go tightening the bolts you will move the dish. As you tighten a clamp onto a round fixing the clamp moves in the opposite direction its being tightened. So, if you tighten the bolt on the left 3 turns, also tighten the bolt on the right 3 turns. Do this untill you are satisfied that it is tight enough.

One last adjustment is the skew. This is necessary as because you are not directly underneath the satellite the horizontal and vertical signals reaching the LNB are not straight, to compensate for this you have to slightly twist the LNB in its holder. again watching the signal bars to see how it improves or drops.

Go back inside and as per the manufacterers instructions you can now start to search for channels.

 

[digidude]

:Cheers: CONGRATULATIONS :Cheers:

You have just installed your own satellite system.









If anybody can think of anythink to add or change on this can you please PM me.

cheers

DD :Jester:

 

[pinkhelmets]

Very good guide so far DD.
A satellite signal meter is a good investment, even a basic and cheap bleeper. This is probably more important than having a compass in my view. If you are planning to fit more than one dish in your lifetime, then here are some additional tips.

You will always see other dishes that will give you a clue as to elevation and where you should be looking in the sky.
The sun (when it shows itself) is a good indication of south-ish, depends on the time of day but worth getting used to where when etc. Great shortcut for finding the south facing wall.
Every time you align a dish with a meter, take the oportunity to move the dish around to hear the other satellites in the sky. You will soon find that Astra2@28* and Astra1@19* give strongest signals in the uk skies. You will also quickly learn how far apart they are (which is 9degrees) and you will soon see how easy it is to find any satellite you want, by building your map from these 2 and following the Clarke Belt. Practice finding Hotbird@13degrees, you will teach yourself very quickly.