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Installing a sky Freesat satellite dish

When installing a satellite dish for Sky or Freesat, the dish has to point 28.2 degrees east of south for freesat or sky signals.
So you will find that most satellite dishes are installed on a south facing wall.

Make sure you have a line of sight to the position of the satellite you are aiming for and there are no obstacles blocking the signal from the satellite like trees or buildings. This is called line of sight. 


 
Picture of a satellite dish

Look at the direction that dishes around your property are pointing to and imagine a satellite dish on your house pointing the same way and see if there would be any obstacles in the way of the satellite signal for the dish you are trying to install.


Picture of tree blocking satellite signal

One of the tools you could get yourself

is a satellite compass built

for the job with the position

of the astra satellite 28.2 degrees east of south

marked on it like the one below. So very

easy to use.


 
Picture of satellite compass

You align the compass to north on the red side of the needle
then the arrow points towards the satellite position. 
This would be the direction you point the dish.

This will give you a general position of the satellite but you may
 need to do a fine adjustment of the dish. 
This job can be carried out by the satellite meter pictured below.


Picture of satellite meter

You connect the meter in line with the cable coming from the LNB on the dish so the meter fits between the satellite dish and the sky or Freesat box.
The meter sits here because it gets it's power to work from the satellite, so make sure the box is turned on.

First of all you turn the little black knob with + and - on the satellite meter fully clockwise. 
You then slightly turn you dish from left or right and when you hit a signal from a satellite

Picture of adjustment on satellite dish

all the lights on the meter will light up. 
You then turn the black knob anti clockwise
until you have only 2 lights lit.
Then adjust your dish left or right to try and get as many lights back on as possible.
What you are doing is aligning the dish to the strongest signal from the  satellite you are tuning into.

Then there's another adjustment called elevation.   This is moving the dish forwards or backwards at an angle.  

So when you have your satellite meter connected, moving the dish slightly from left to right and tipping the dish backwards and forwards will get you the strongest signal from the satellite.
This is called elevation and azimuth adjustment. 


Picture of adjustment on satellite dish


Picture of elevation and azimuth adjustment on a dish

It's a bit of a fine adjustment to align a satellite dish
but when you have the dish locked onto a good signal
tighten all the bolts on the brackets and the dish should
work well for years. 





The following Tools and Dish we

sell are to help you align a dish.

 
Sent by first Class Post or Hermes Couriers

Tool 1

Satellite compass

To align a dish to the sky or
freesat satellite


Only
£9.99

Picture of a Satellite Compass

Tool 2

Satellite meter

This will help with the fine tune on a install of
a sky or freesat dish to get the optimum performance
from the dish

Only
£19.99
 

Picture of a Satellite Meter

45 CM Sky /Freesat Dish with quad LNB