Satellite Installation

cherryredcutie

Hi everyone,

I would like to install a satellite dish to receive some German TV, any ideas how much this would cost to get installed by someone?

We have a Sky Dish, LNB, Cable and receiver and had already installed it all and could receive the channels but after coming back from holiday it doesn't work anymore, we still get some sound, but very snowy and flickering picture, we tried to adjust the satellite but it does not get any better no matter what direction we point it. So we don't know what's up with it.

We wanted to move the satellite and take it of and position it a bit higher, problem is the dish is up over our conservatory and we can't reach the nuts to unscrew the dish from the wall, would have to climb on the conservatory roof to reach and we're afraid it will break. Any ideas on how we could reach maybe?

Thanks a lot for reading!
Anne

gmgmgm

Are you saying that you had a perfectly-working dish before and that now something has changed which means you get a snowy picture?

Why not just fix the problem, instead of trying to mount the dish higher? If it worked before, it's likely to work again once you or an expert has figured out what has changed.

macman

I'm not clear how the two issues are related?-you won't get German TV through a Sky system.
To fix your Sky system it's pointless moving the dish up if it was alright before, as all that is needed is a clear line of sight to the Astra satellite, in theory you could have your dish at ground level as long as there is still a clear line. The only thing likely to have happened is that tree growth or some other obstacle has blocked the signal, you should be able to establish this easily for yourself. The other likely fault is that the dish has worked loose on the bracket, or the bracket itself has come loose, or a connection is faulty.
Best to get an engineeer in to check it over for you and realign it-ot you can buy a meter for a tenner and do it yourself.

cherryredcutie

gmgmgm wrote: »

Are you saying that you had a perfectly-working dish before and that now something has changed which means you get a snowy picture?

Yes, that's right, I have a free to air receiver and we had already aligned the satellite to Astra and the picture and sound of the German tv was fine, but when we came back from holiday the picture suddenly went snowy, we tried to re-align the satellite but it's quite hard to reach so we had to use to broomsticks to move it . We also have a satellite meter and it's got a strong signal but still no picture, I wonder if the receiver might be faulty. If I knew what was wrong, I would fix it but we can't figure out what the fault is. Maybe I should try to get a new receiver and see if that will fix it.

Thanks,
Anne

jonesjw

Could be anything. I had those symptoms due to water getting in the cable a few years back.
Can't you put some spreader boards on the roof of the conservatory, then unbolt the dish & move it a few feet towards the corner where you can then remount it & have easier access for next time. There are plenty of cheap satellite alignment meters around for about £10. See ebay.

macman

cherryredcutie wrote: »

Yes, that's right, I have a free to air receiver and we had already aligned the satellite to Astra and the picture and sound of the German tv was fine, but when we came back from holiday the picture suddenly went snowy, we tried to re-align the satellite but it's quite hard to reach so we had to use to broomsticks to move it . We also have a satellite meter and it's got a strong signal but still no picture, I wonder if the receiver might be faulty. If I knew what was wrong, I would fix it but we can't figure out what the fault is. Maybe I should try to get a new receiver and see if that will fix it.

Thanks,
Anne

You must have a very long broomstick if you can reach the satellite-it's about 37,000km away!
Seriously, you can't do a proper alignment with a wooden pole, you need to be able to get at the dish properly; as advised above the best policy is to move the bracket back to the left of the picture where you can easily reach it.
If the dish and bracket are secure and haven't moved then it's more likely to be a problem with the LNB, cabling or receiver. Can you borrow a receiver and swap it for yours to see if it solves the problem?

Inactive

cherryredcutie wrote: »

Yes, that's right, I have a free to air receiver and we had already aligned the satellite to Astra and the picture and sound of the German tv was fine, but when we came back from holiday the picture suddenly went snowy, we tried to re-align the satellite but it's quite hard to reach so we had to use to broomsticks to move it . We also have a satellite meter and it's got a strong signal but still no picture, I wonder if the receiver might be faulty. If I knew what was wrong, I would fix it but we can't figure out what the fault is. Maybe I should try to get a new receiver and see if that will fix it.

Thanks,
Anne

You may have aligned it on to another satellite, you cannot properly align a dish using broomsticks, move the dish to an accessible location.

Pssst

Sat dishs arent like terrestrial antennae for tv or wireless communication. Height has little/nothing to do with it. all it requires is good line of site to the sat,it has to be big enough to capture a good sig level and the receiver has to be able to deocde whats presented to it. Sky mini dishes are optimised (made cheaply enough!) to receive sky but may not be that brilliant for other services.

Inactive

Also, if you can move the dish with a broom stick, the dish must be loose, which is no good at all, as soon as the wind blows, it will move.

jaywhoopee

When we had a sudden loss of signal on our sky installation a few years back I eventually figured out that one of the two sides of the plastic mount of the LNB had fractured, probably due to a strike from a football.

It wasn't immediately obvious when I first looked, as the break held itself closed due to gravity but the mounting had completely lost its rigidity and was moving a lot more in the wind, which we spotted on closer inspection and waggling

cherryredcutie

jonesjw wrote: »

Can't you put some spreader boards on the roof of the conservatory, then unbolt the dish & move it a few feet towards the corner where you can then remount it & have easier access for next time. .

What are spreader boards, where can I get them and what do they look like? Yes, that was our plan actually to move the dish a bit to the left so we can have easier access, problem is we can't reach the screws when standing on the ladder. Would make it much easier to adjust the satellite. I have one of those satellite meters but again, can't reach to connect it properly.

macman wrote: »

You must have a very long broomstick if you can reach the satellite-it's about 37,000km away!
Can you borrow a receiver and swap it for yours to see if it solves the problem?

:rotfl:. Very good that made me laugh. I don't know anyone with a receiver to borrow, I have tried freecycle to get one but no luck so far.

Inactive wrote: »

Also, if you can move the dish with a broom stick, the dish must be loose, which is no good at all, as soon as the wind blows, it will move.

It's very hard to move it with it as it bounces back so it's not really that loose. We must have been very lucky the first time to get it alined to the right satellite, it took a while to get it right.

So I guess it's best to move the dish, just need to find a way to go about it without breaking the conservatory roof. I wish the previous owner of our house had moved the dish before they built the conservatory :rolleyes:.

Thanks everyone for the replies!
Anne