ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
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Need to get freesat for the house, didn't go for sky as there's never anyone in to watch TV often enough to warrant £20 a month 
Digital switch-over in my area is going to render normal freeview useless, so going down the freesat route.
Bought myself a installation kit from ebay, includes a dish, all mounting hardware, quad LNB (only need it to two rooms, but at least I have the option for two more), and 20m of cabling and several F connectors.
Anyone installed one DIY before? Seems easy enough, had a look at a DIY guide, was just looking for any more tips 
[Edited on 04-05-2010 by ChrisBoom]
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Look up the Astra 2D sat details, grab a compass and a mate and get installing. Obviously place the dish somewhere where theres line of sight.
Btw, how comes you think the digital switch over is going to render freeview useless? A few areas are switching transmitting channels for digital freeview which will render some old freeview set top boxes useless.....
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
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Got all the Astra 2D info in the DIY guide I have so should be fine.
The signal quality in my area has always been awful due to the valley I live in, according to the switch-over website the signal quality for my area will get even worse for most channels, though some will get better with the switch-over.
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Chris
Premium Member
Registered: 21st Sep 99
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If mem serves its 28.2 E, hard part is the angle upwards, have a look at other dishes in the area to get the rough idea of signal direction.
Then just a case of checking signal on the box with a mate moving the dish untill you get above 70%
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
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Yeah, had a look out at other peoples dishes, cant mount mine on the wall as its going to be blocked by a house, so its going on the chimney stack.
Just to check, a standard quad LNB will allow me to run two separate boxes, that select their own channel?
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by ChrisBoom
Yeah, had a look out at other peoples dishes, cant mount mine on the wall as its going to be blocked by a house, so its going on the chimney stack.
Just to check, a standard quad LNB will allow me to run two separate boxes, that select their own channel?
quad lnb will give you 4 outputs, so 4 standard boxes or 2 dual-tuner (pvr/sky+)boxes etc Make sure it's a quad lnb and not a '4 output lnb' (forgot the proper name) for distribution (splits the signal into hi/lo etc)
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
quote:
Originally posted by ChrisBoom
Yeah, had a look out at other peoples dishes, cant mount mine on the wall as its going to be blocked by a house, so its going on the chimney stack.
Just to check, a standard quad LNB will allow me to run two separate boxes, that select their own channel?
quad lnb will give you 4 outputs, so 4 standard boxes or 2 dual-tuner (pvr/sky+)boxes etc Make sure it's a quad lnb and not a '4 output lnb' (forgot the proper name) for distribution (splits the signal into hi/lo etc)
Will just be two standard boxes, so should be fine.
Was advertised on ebay as a quad LNB anyway, here is the kit I bought:
Click!
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Edd
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Registered: 8th Nov 04
Location: Glasgow
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if im honest i would tell you to not fuck about on your roof with a dish, you'll understand when your up there
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ash_corsa
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Registered: 15th Apr 04
Location: Shrewsbury
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Aligning a dish isnt like wanging up an aerial, 1mm here or 1mm there can be the difference between full signal and fuck-all.
Unless you have a sat meter i wouldnt bother, you'll be on the roof for ages and more than likely be pissing in the wind.
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Edd
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Registered: 8th Nov 04
Location: Glasgow
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know that feeling sometimes you just cannot catch the fucker
be careful mate its very easy looking up at the roof and saying nae bother different story when your up there with a drill and a fucking dish on your back
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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http://www.dishpointer.com/
and get your protractor out, or get a signal finder.
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
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Bought a signal finder with the kit, was only £6 or something.
Theres a massive back log with the local fitters, and they wanted £180 to put a feed to two rooms, ill tackle it DIY first
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MarkM
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Registered: 11th Apr 01
Location: Liverpool
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I was looking into those motorised dish packages not long ago.
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by John
http://www.dishpointer.com/
and get your protractor out, or get a signal finder.
Just had a good look at that site, going to be very useful, I have a landmark I can point the dish directly towards to get it in line, can fine tune it with the signal finder then. Cheers John.
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
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Kit arrived yesterday, seems all good quality. Still waiting on the receivers though, will tackle fitting the dish tomorrow if they show up, and the weather is decent.
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
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Well the receivers arrived today, so tackled installing the dish today:
Was quite easy to install actually, had it aligned within 5 minutes. Luckly I didnt have to mount it on the chimney, so saved me going up on the roof. Works fine, but disapointed that dave, tmf etc isnt on it though, all the UKTV channels are sky or freeview only.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Knew it wasn't difficult to align it 
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
User status: Offline
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Took a portable TV outside, along with the receiver to do it. Satellite finder was very useful too, but fucking annoying, as it was a high pitched tone when it was at its strongest signal, did my head in
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Edd
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Registered: 8th Nov 04
Location: Glasgow
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good move not going on the roof
drill in the wrong place 1st time? lol
i'd put some electrical tape or something over the pole that the dish is mounted on as its seems you pointed this upwards which means rain water will just go straight into it
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ChrisBoom
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Registered: 6th Dec 06
Location: Highland
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Edd
good move not going on the roof
drill in the wrong place 1st time? lol
i'd put some electrical tape or something over the pole that the dish is mounted on as its seems you pointed this upwards which means rain water will just go straight into it
Yup, drilled in too far, wall plugs were flapping about
Good thinking with that, will cap it off tomorrow
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