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We recommend printing this guide to refer to whilst setting up your dish.If you follow these instructions carefully you should have no problem performing a self install.

Properly aligning your satellite dish may seem a job reserved for the professional installer but with this guide, anyone with basic DIY skills can achieve the same. Once done, the reward will be a troublefree TV experience.

For the simplest set up guide please click on the link for your system for either Sky free to air or Freesat

Whilst the videos are for tripod sets the alignment process is exactly the same for wall mounted dishes once you have followed the mounting instructions in the assembly sheet..

 

Alternatively follow the instructions below for Sky installation:-

To  receive a clear satellite picture, the dish must not only have a clear line-of-sight to the satellite (no obstacles in the way including trees) but also the correct vertical (elevation) and horizontal (azimuth) alignment. The vertical alignment is the dish angle of elevation, and refers to the angle at which the satellite signals hit the Earth’s surface. In the northern hemisphere, they are flat – about 15° the further south you go i.e. nearer to the equator, the steeper they become. On Sicily they have an elevation angle of 45° and right on the equator of 90°. Horizontal alignment refers the position of a satellite relative to where you wish to receive the signal, and requires the dish to be turned towards the east or west until the correct satellite is pointed at. Thus, the elevation and azimuth angles vary depending on your location and the satellite. You can get your dish setup angles calculated for Sky UK by just entering your postcode on the dish alignment tool at satellite post code guide Once you have this data, you can proceed.

The Sky and Freesat satellite is located at 28.2° east so if you can use a compass (smartphone apps are perfect), or look at your neighbours dish  to roughly point it in the right direction before fine tuning as below.

Step-by-step

The following steps assume that you have purchased our set with a satellite finder. Whilst not essential a satellite finder is a real time-saver and takes out the strain of the trial-and-error procedure. If you haven’t purchased a set with a satellite finder you can buy from our website .

If you don’t have a satellite finder, the following steps can still be followed by ignoring the parts with the satellite finder.

So, let’s get started.

First make sure that the receiver is switched-off. Now disconnect the cable from the LNB (at the dish) and connect it to the finder at the socket labelled TO REC. Then connect the other end of the finder to the LNB using the patch cable.

Now switch on the receiver and make sure that your television is tuned to the output channel of the satellite receiver. Next, use the ‘Signal Test’ menu built into the Sky digital decoder. To access this menu, first press the ‘SERVICES’ button on the remote, then in the ‘SERVICES’ menu, select  ‘SYSTEM SETUP’ and then ‘SIGNAL TEST’

This information will make sure that you lock at the right satellite and will help adjust the polarisation angle of the LNB (sometimes referred to as the LNB skew or LNB tilt) in order to get the best signal quality.

Back to the dish, keep the finder behind the dish face. The sateliite finder’s backlight should go on, indicating it is receiving power from the receiver. Start by adjusting the elevation first. Take the elevation angle you obtained before and subtract the offset angle of the dish (usually 20° but this varies from dish to dish). For example, if your elevation angle is 25° and the dish offset angle is 20° then you will need to point the dish up by only 5° from the horizontal. How much is 5°? If you have a wrist watch, look at 1 o’clock, that’s 30° (3 o’clock is 90°); i.e. 1 minute is 6°. This will give you a rough idea of how much to move your dish upwards.

As stated earlier the Sky satellite is located at 28.2° east  so if you can use a compass (smartphone apps are perfect), look at your neighbours dish, or use your wrist watch to roughly point it in the right direction and then move it only a bit at a time. As you move the dish, the needle of the satellite finder will oscillate, indicating a change in signal strength. If the needle hits the maximum point, turn the sensitivity knob on the finder so that you have a reading of no more than 5. Keep moving the dish very slightly to the left or right and see if the needle goes up or down. If the reading goes up, turn the knob back so that you again have a reading of 5. Keep repeating this to try and keep the reading at 5. You have found the perfect alignment if the reading does not increase by moving the dish either to the left or right.

You still need to check that you have found the right satellite as the finder will pick up any satellite. On the TV screen, there should be at least a quarter of the ‘Signal quality’ bar displayed, the ‘Lock indicator’ should show ‘OK’, and the ‘Network ID’ should read ‘0002’. If the ‘Network ID’ is showing any other details, you have locked onto the wrong satellite and will need to keep moving the satellite dish. Note that Sky digital is located on the third strongest satellite coming from South towards East and on the first strongest satellite coming from East towards South. If everything displays correctly, fix the dish horizontally and do the same for the vertical alignment. Take care when tightening the dish mounting bolts not to move the dish position.

Note that when using a compass you will need to subtract about 2-3 degrees from the azimuth angle for the magnetic variation in the UK.

For satellite reception, the ‘skew’ angle of the LNB is also important. The ‘skew’ angle represents the horizontal/vertical plane of the LNB. When a satellite dish is facing towards a satellite at due South, the plane of the LNB will be vertical (straight down). As the dish is moved around either East or West to receive other Satellites the LNB will need to be tilted (rotated), clockwise for West and counter clockwise for East. Use the calculated LNB skew angle only as a starting point, but since some LNBs (especially for the mini dish) are already internally tilted and also some satellites send the frequencies somewhat rotated, it cannot be fully relied on. So, the best way to adjust the LNB skew is to set it at zero degree and then to rotate it in very small steps both ways while keeping an eye on the signal quality bar on the TV screen. Once this is at maximum, fix the LNB. Note that on some LNBs, the rotation is achieved my moving the cable socket at the bottom of the LNB laterally.

This is all there is to it – not really rocket science. Now you can enjoy your favourite channels.

 

 

 

 

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