How difficult is it to install a sky dish myself?

Question

I need to place it on a garage according to the sky engineer so I will need a long pole and then the wiring needs to be trailed to the house and sealed underground. They want to charge me £200 plus VAT for this, when I feel that it is something I can do myself, but wonder how I know that I have aligned the dish correctly to get a good signal and what I could do about covering the wire?

Answer 1

Ask Mr. Bean, he seemed very good at aiming an antenna ...hahahaha

Answer 2

£200 plus VAT, never.

For a one off cost you can purchase a motorised dish and receiver that will pick up 23 satellites across Europe (not just the one that Sky gives you) you will have access to 6500 channels.

Premiere football, Hollywood movies and NO monthly subscriptions.

I had no knowledge or experience, am retired,  yet I fitted my system in 2 hours.

To specifically answer your question. Aim the dish as close to due south as you can. Fix the elevation angle (22.4 degrees where I live but the charts will tell you what it is for your loacation) my reciver box then automatically locked on to the 23 staellites in turn. I also can use a USB memory stick in the receiver as a personal video recorder.

As I say, my total cost was £160 and a couple of hours work. Email if you want to ask more.

Answer 3

If you already have a sky box then it is relatively easy. Sky actually do a pdf on the net with all the info. I can't quote the URL but if you search you will come across it. As said, once you have the azimuth (the up and down angle) it is a simple matter of turning the tv and box on,( box showing the signal via the set up menu) and gradually turning the dish in the right direction. Look at your neighbours dishes for a starting point. Move the dish in very small increments as remember a tiny movement own here equals a few miles up in space! Be patient, it will take time - but it will work. Re cable use high quality sat cable. You can run it anywhere so long as it's out of the way. I ran mine through the loft as it was the easiest route. I would look at alternative positions for the dish. On the house is easiest. Again, see what neighbours have done. Maplins sell the cable and 'F'connectors.

Answer 4

Fitting of dish is easy enough. Run cable underground in plastic (or even metal) conduit available at any DIY shop. Dish aligning is only tricky bit, but signal strength meters are available for £10 or so. Make sure cable ends are sealed as water 'crawls' along the cable and ruins the signal.

Correction : signal meter £16.24 (toolstation.com) order number 44578

Answer 5

the easy solution,(and i have done this myself),have a look to see if there are any houses  round about with a dish,and roughly point yours in same direction,and secondly have someone inside the house and have the decoder switched on as you adjust the dish and you should be fine.what size dish is it,?although we in the northern hemisphere dont have to worry too much as the spread of signal from skys sat elite is very wide so you should pick it up no bother!!GOOD LUCK!!

Answer 6

Not very difficult. I have a friend he installed a world receiver himself and it seems to work perfectly.

But on a second thought: He is a VERY intelligent person... :-)