Just get a local Sky installer to pop round and let him wander around with his satellite gizmo in his hand, he'll soon tell you what is/not possible.

tony

 

Thanks, however the sky chap is absolutely useless, when we moved in we got them round and as he got out of his van he looked and said no chance here, phone his office told them arranged my refund and went.
two days later after having another couple of numpties round, the fourth chap came from his van with a dish and an audio signal meter and wandered up and down the garden and was able to fit a dish and wire up and the signal was 95% according to the sky chap who came 3 years later to add an extra line in.
However i need to put a door where it is sited, do not have that chaps number anymore,well it is 5 years since.

cabby

 

If you have a smartphone, you can download an app that superimposes the sat on your camera picture so just point it and see.

Dishpointer on Iphone

 

Have you still not fixed that dish cabby?

Just put it up and look at next doors for orientation. It should be roughly pointing in the horizontal as a starting point.

Set up the TV and Sky digibox to the signal strength page and move the dish until it is locked on and has a strong signal. Tighten the bolts then forget about it.

As I said before, many of us with freestanding dishes do it every time we park up and in less than a minute.

Any volunteers want to pop round and do it for him.

 

Go to the Astra website and you can put in your location an get all the coordinates ie true azimuth, elevation angle and polarisation/offset

 

There are several programs that can be used to find the details e.g.

http://www.dishpointer.com/

http://www.satsig.net/maps/satellite-tv-dish-pointing-uk-ireland.htm

this one is specifically for Sky;

http://www.stevelarkins.freeuk.com/sky-dish-installation.htm

Hope those help - it is very easy to do and each of those programs gave very similar results when I tried......

Dave

 

Its worth buying a cheap signal meter (about a fiver off ebay)

Go for one with a moving needle rather than LED's, you can then adjust the dish more accurately by watching the needle move rather than relying on the signal strength display on your sat box because they are very slow to react in comparison.

 

Borrow an Android phone and download "satfinder" app (free).

Stand near the proposed location of your dish and use the app to superimpose the satellite location on your phone screen. This will confirm instantly whether or not the trees will interfere with your signal.

 

Cabby

If you just remove it from the wall without moving the angle of elevation you can then try it where you want to put it, If it does not work it will go back correctly when you put it back to the original place.

Ours is on the ground and we have another static van across a narrow road and that works just fine.

If you was closer I would come down and do it foe you.

Andy

 

The present dish location is on my garage wall at the back about 12" off the ground.The cable has to go across our patio at around 8ft high to the house. Further down the road they have their dish on a high pole on the chimney, to clear the height of the trees.
So wanted the elevation angle so that I could possibly work out if the same solution would work for me, but the snag is the trees behind us are the highest along the range. I do not want to have to climb up onto the roof with a mobile phone. I would not be able to read it when taped to an 8ft long pole either. Did notice that the chimney needs re-pointing.
I want to enclose the area between the garage and the house as a conservatory, but need access to the back garden, this means a door in the back wall of the garage. Problem is there is a sky dish in the way. :wink: :wink:

cabby

 

="cabby"........... this means a door in the back wall of the garage. Problem is there is a sky dish in the way. :wink: :wink:

cabby

You must either have a very narrow garage back wall or a very wide satellite dish :?

Can't either be moved to one side?

Or even mount the satellite dish over the new door on a pole?

Also if the trees are so high, why is the dish mounted so low? Surely higher would be better. :wink:

 

There is a tree on the other end of the garage back wall, so to fit a door, either the tree or the dish have to be moved.

The dish is low to enable the signal to reach through a gap in the trees that we are allowed to trim.

Oh yes the building is a bungalow not a house.

I really do not wish to use a spirit level and a protractor to guess the angles, just thought that there would be a guide that gives rough setting angles to give me an idea if it is possible.

Maybe one of those distance measurement hand held gubbins would be the answer and use calculation as we were taught in school, so many years ago.

cabby

 

As I said earlier go to the astra website and there is an instalation help guide where can find all the coordinates for your location. Alternatively if you google it there are a number of other sites that will give you the info.Dont forget though that the dish elevation is not the true angle of focus as the lnb is offset so is actually pointing much higher than the dish

 

I really do not wish to use a spirit level and a protractor to guess the angles, just thought that there would be a guide that gives rough setting angles to give me an idea if it is possible.

On the south coast the elevation angle will be around 25 deg. That's the direct angle from horizontal to the satellite, NOT the angle of the dish on the usual Sky type offset focus dish.

 

Well, that works out to nearly my own calculation, roughly 26 plus 7 = 33 for elevation which is all I wanted.
Now al I have to do is measure the tree heights and distance away from house plus height of house. Then I can see if it is possible to put the dish anywhere else.

cabby

 

Well, that works out to nearly my own calculation, roughly 26 plus 7 = 33 for elevation which is all I wanted.
Now al I have to do is measure the tree heights and distance away from house plus height of house. Then I can see if it is possible to put the dish anywhere else.

cabby

Err.....

Where do you get the +7 degrees from? :?

If you're using measurement of tree height and distance to calculate your angle you simply need to use the 25 degrees from horizontal as your target. The dish focus offset is irrelevent.

 

Oh for goodness sake get a gizmo or an app stop faffing :roll:

tony

 

Bleedin' hell cabby, I have been surrounded by hills in Northern Scotland and got a satellite signal. 8O

Molehills and mountains spring to mind. :wink:

 

The website said add 7 deg for Astra 2 sat to the beam angle.
so I will just take it at 25 deg. The max height of a pole to negate wind movement etc would be 6ft approx, fitted to the highest point, giving a max of 24ft, the trees are 40ft away,& they are around 60ft.

So on this triangle, if the base line is 40ft and the other side is 36ft what are the other 2 angles given that one is 90deg.

i remember doing this sort of sum on my 11plus.
:roll: :roll:

cabby

 

:roll:

tony

 

Ok, well it works out to an angle of around 40deg. so this means that moving the sat dish is out of the question. well doing this has meant that i have not had to sit through a boring load of rubbish TV. :lol: :lol: :lol:

cabby