Motorised Satellite Dish Install Guide

today im going to talk about installing a motorised dish successfully.

ok first thing first you need to buy the kit this includes:

Dish and LNB
Diseq Motor
Wall Brackets
Pole
Cable Inc 4 F Connectors

I recommend you purchase minimum 80cm dish. In some areas of uk 90cm is required but bigger dishes need to be used in certain aeras of uk its worth doing a search on google to see what size dish you require like i said minimum is 80cm/90cm dish size. The dish usually includes a LNB and dish brackets etc and can be purchased between 30-70 pounds depending on make. The motor needs to be a Diseq Motor and these range from 40-70 pounds a full package inc dish and motor and cable etc can be purchased for as little as 100 uk pounds.

Now once the dish and motor have been bought the second step is where to mount the dish this depends on house type and location the dish needs to be mounted with out any obstacles in front of it so the higher the better if your lucky and have a big garden to the south side of the house then this is a ideal place you can mount on wall below guttering or if your brave above guttering on T & K brackets mounted on a pole. A basic understanding of where to mount dish is look for your sky dish or where your neighbours are mounted this is the side of the house where the dish needs to be mounted some are on all others are above guttering etc. Location needs to be planned so ask youself is there enough room for the dish to move? is there any obstacles where the dish wont be able to pickup a signal i.e 1-5 meters in front like a house roof, trees etc and what sort of bracket will i need to mount dish.

The 3rd step is the actual mounting of dish once it as been decided where you are going to mount the dish its time to pick a nice day get the tools you need:

Obvisiouly for full install you will need:

A Drill and correct size mason drill bit
blk marker pen
13mm spanners 2 off
spirit level
pliers
black electrical tape and cable ties
hammer
Wire cutters
Satellite Finder Kit or a friend with a mobile! or walkie talkies!
wall plugs and bolts or raw bolts isntead off which i recomend for stregth and security if your using them
and f connectors and cable
T & K Brackets and a pole OR 2 square Wall Bracket's and pole

ok there are 2 ways to mount dish which way depends on you both have pros and cons but both are safe bare with me this may make some want to fall asleep i have made this guide for absoulte dummys aswell as amateurs and pros so you can judge me on what i have put

the first way is the easy method for install is to use square brackets and a pole mounted to house wall by square brackets i mean the ones used to mount tv aerials! yes i know what your going to say this is abit dodgy! but believe me my dish has been mounted for the last 2 years and i could swing on it infact i have! and still wont fall off the wall brackets are the steel not the shitty aluminium ones.
this method you can use plugs and bolts you place the first bottom bracket to where you want the dish make sure bracket is in between 2 bricks if your drilling into red brick so your not drilling into the pointing itself butall 4 holes are going to be drilled into the brick! this is important next get the spirit level and place on the top of bracket level bracket so its straight and get black market pen and mark where holes are ready to drill. OK remove bracket and now you should have 4 black dots on your wall Lovely! now thats it thanks for reading!

Only joking ok next grab drill and correct mason drill bit SDS drills are much better then standard drills make light work of drilling so if you have one of these or not try and borrow one from a friend ok make sure correct drill bit is used this needs to be slightly bigger then wall plug but not to big or wall plug wont fit snug also make sure you dont drill to far in so mark drill bit with a abit of tape so you know where to drill up to or if you have a posh drill use the marker that comes with it. Ok drill all 4 holes once done have a break and rest your legs and arms!

Back up ladder place all 4 plugs in the holes then place bracket over top then bolt the top left corner in half way then bolt the bottom right corner is half way next use spirit level and make sure bracket is still level then bolt the 2 bolts in fully followed by the other 2 bolts if wall is not straight you may have to use some washers underneath so bracket is level against wall itself ok moving on do same for second bracket and leave about 60cm between them or depending on dish size remember pole is going to bolt onto bottom bracket and then top bracket so you have sturdy mount and dish will be mounted to pole in between both brackets so leave enough space. once both brackets are on bolt pole to both brackets using the u bolts supplied. and thats it this guide is same for if your mounting dish with T & k Brackets and pole same principle but the dish mounts above both brackets. Also The T Bracket goes to the bottom and the K Bracket goes to the top, the pole bolts to the bottom t bracket just leaving a bit of pole sticking out the bottom and the k bolts onto the top witt the rest of the pole going up over the gutter to mount the dish on to it, so a longer pole is required for this install if you do a search on google you can see pictures of dishes set up using both mounts for a visual of them.

Ok 4th step

Once dish bracket is up build up dish using instructions that came with dish place LNB on dish then attach dish bracket to motor arm, instructions should come with your dish and motor but principle is that the dish itself attached to arm of bracket then the motor it mounted onto pole witht the dish mounted to bracket does that make sense? I recommend mounting the motor itself on pole first place over pole and use compass to find roughly true south then bolt motor onto pole using 13mm spanner or other size if bigger, but dont tighten up all 4 bolts just tighten up the top left and bottom right to pole next take the dish up the ladder and bolt dish onto motor arm the dish needs to be bolted to arm straight so dish is level to motor, fully tightem all 4 bolts up! otherwise dish will slide of and fall to ground! ok now you need to connect standard cable wire from LNB On dish to LNB Connection on motor best way is to cut about a meter and half of cable out first F connector on one end and go back up ladders connect F connector to Dish LNB then thread other end throw dish arm out the back of dish and cut cable to leave abit of play for when dish will move this is important! otherwise if you just cut cable just to reach Motor when dish moves the cable will just come out or break and could cause damage to motor! ok place 2nd F connector on cable and connect to LNB connection on motor next come down ladder

Now we are going to route cable down to reciever from dish into house ok get rest of cable put a F connector on cable and go back up ladder place the f connector on the Reciever Out on the Motor and drop rest of cable to ground then fasten cable to wall using cable Tacs or cable tie to your exisiting sky cable or other. route cable to where you want the cable to come into house if you already have sky dish follow the cable down to where hole into house is then drill hole in wall to get cable through if your lucky you might be able to get cable through exisiting hole without having to drill another hole i dont recommend drilling through PVC windows has this damages the window and if you move you will be left with holes in the window!

and you guessed it place cable through hole put a F connector on it and connect to your satellite reciever if your having problems getting cable through the hole in the wall try using a coat hanger strighten coat hanger out and place electrical tape around cable and fasten to coat hanger iotself then thread through wall easy!

the last and final step 5!

the easy bit! ;P setting up dish to scan sattellites correctly

ok last step setting up dish to succesfully scan arc of satellites the easy way!

first things first you need a satellite meter easy option! or a friend! also a compass, spanners and spirt level

LEVEL?

check with spirt level that the brackets and pole are level! VERY IMPORTANT! if the pole is not level you will not pull in all satellites or none at all!

TRUE SOUTH?

now move motor with dish attached! to true south using compass if not already there in my area im lucky has true south is dead on in other areas can be left or right if you use compass you can point dish tru south you will need to lossen motor abit to move dish and motor but dont loosen to much or dish will fall with motor attached so be carefull.

DISH AND MOTOR ELEVATION

Ok once dish is true south you need to set the dish and motor elevation the dish elevation can be found here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] input your postcode and address and will also give you your longitude and latitude and your Azimuth use this website [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to calculate your motor angle once you have both these figures you need to unbolt dish and motor alignment bolts these are the scales on the side of dish and motor dont loosen to much just enough to move angel up or down and select correct value so for example:

dish elevation is 28.7 degrees
motor elevation is 25 degress

we would set dish elevation on scale to 29 and just under
and motor elevation to 25 degress on motor scale

once this as been done these may have to be adjusted slighly but sometimes may be bang on!

Your Half way there!

Next,

SET UP OF RECIEVER

climb down ladder and set up reciever to MULTI-SAT CONFIG AND SET TO USALS and get your longitude and lattitude from google use calculater and input them into USALS menu and save! next go to scan new satellites and select 0.8 degee west which is THOR satellite, you should see signal bar and signal strengh bars which should be low if there full up do a channel scan and see what channels are picked up you can use satellite guide at lyngsat to tell what satellite you are on or channel's themselves!

THOR 0.8 FINDING

If your lucky you may be on 0.8 degree west if not you need to go back up ladder and use meter to align dish to 0.8 degree west or if you dont have a meter phone yer friend who should be in your lounge and slowly move dish left and right by a few degrees around till your friend says theres a signal get him to scan and see what channels come up this can be hit and miss and if you can borrow a satellite meter then do but the other way can work have used it myself when i sold my meter why? dont ask stupidiest thing i did! anyway once you have THOR 0.8 degree west or 1 WEST and you can confirm that it is that satellite! your nearly there!!

Check that you have the best singal level if it is low below sat 60% you can adjust the dish elevation up and down to gain a better signal or motor elevation do one at once! usually dish elevation will be out a few degrees but you can mess about with this later if you have a meter again this makes this easy to get the best signal.

FINAL SET UP OF DISH!

Ok now make sure motor is set to 0! if it is not you can use the buttons on the motor itself carefully pressing them to move the motor left and right to get it to 0 watch your fingers! they can get trapped. OK! now undo motor bolts slightly so you can move dish from pole and turn motor with dish a degree to the to the left this will set dish back to true south so when you move dish to 0.8 degree west it should land on 0.8 degree west? Clever eh? This is how you do it theres a method to my madness!

CLOSE

I have only ever done 3-4 install's where dish was 100%! and picked up all satellites this was pure luck a meter was not used in 2 of these circumstances and first time was shocked myself! next check to see if dish brings in the other sats 13 east 28 east 42 east etc and west satellites inc 30 degrees west Hispasat! if your in luck you will be able to get all the satellites from 30 west to 30 east and maybe 42 east to 40 west depending on dish size. OK thats it do a multi satellite scan and save channels and sit down and enjoy your new channels!

IF Not sucessfull then start at step 5 again! make sure you have all settings correct especially elevation of dish and motor and that the pole is level these are very important if they are not correct you will pick up some satellites but not all! you may pick up all middles satellite but no outside satellies or vice versa!

I have given you everything i do in mounting and setting up a motorised dish this will save you a good 100-150 pounds in paying for install and give u knowledge of doing in yourself and a sense of pride.

remember stay safe,think smart and enjoy the end result!

Any questions post in the dish install segment of this forum thanks

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