Introduction

I found this the hardest part of the start of Internet by Satellite. It's not an easy task to mount and aim the dish. I personally had to call a friend to get some help (thanks Frank!), so if you can: call someone who has done this before or call your dealer if you're not sure you want to do this.

Some brief information about mounting a dish:

- The dish should be aimed at (for the Astra Satellite!): 19.2° East or 28.2° East (compared to South)
- For the Eutel/Hotbird: please adjust it slightly ... I think it's about 5° more to the east.
- Your dish should be mounted outside, in-house will most likely not work!
- The dish should not be mounted more than 30 meters from the receiver.
- The dish should (for most parts of Europe) at least have a 60 cm diameter.
- The dish should have a free sight, so no houses, trees or whatever in it's sight!
- Check the tilt of the dish (for the Netherlands between 29 and 30 degrees).
- If you still have to buy an LNB (the "head"), then you should consider a double or quadriple LNB.

Why a double or quadriple LNB ? Well, usually these are not that expensive but offer more fun. One can hook up 2 receivers or a receiver and a DVB-card (for Internet by Satellite) etc... for a few extra bucks you get a lot more out of that single dish !

As I already told you: see if you an find some help from a friend or a dealer if you're not sure if you can do this by yourself ... I had a friend helping me too ... so don't feel ashamed.

The instructions below give you an easy way of setting up the dish and should work for all of you,... the information is based on the information I found on the Astra Website, experience and luck,...

Step 1: Where to put that dish?
Before we can place a dish, we must know where the Astra satellite can be found, so we can aim for the right satellite. For the Netherlands, there is an easy trick (other countries may differ).

Take a look at the sky around 12:45 in the beginning of the afternoon (GMT+1, summertime) and locate the sun. The sun is now approximately at the same location as the Astra. For those of you, not living in the Netherlands, or those that just want to be acurate:



The exact location of the Astra is 19,2° east in relation to the south. For users of a compass this should be a piece of cake. I have to admit that I'm not familiar with the use of a compass, I just used the normal "sun"-trick. It's less acurate but very simple. If you like to explain to me how to handle a compass then please mail me !

Also a good trick: take a look at your neighbours dish (if they have one) - it will give you a pretty good idea where to aim for.

Some important dish parts:



A the LNB a.k.a. "the head" of your dish
B wall-mount
C vertical tilt settings
D antenna cable
E dish

You can place the dish anywhere, where the dish has a free line of sight. No object, like a house or a tree, should be blocking the sight from the dish to the Astra satellite !

Make sure the dish is mounted stable ! A moving dish will interfere with reception quality !

Note: The antenna cable should not exceed a length of 30 meters ! Keep this in mind when looking for a location for the dish.

Note: mounting the dish on a wall is the most secure/stable way to mount a dish.

Before you continue: now is the time to mount the satellite reception dish.

Step 2: Vertical tilt/offset of the dish ?
In this situation we mean by this the backwards leaning of the dish. In the chart below you have to locate your position and read the indication on the right to see the degrees for tilting the dish.

In my situation, living in the south of the Netherlands, I must position my dish between 29° and 30°, so I'll start by using a 29,5° vertical tilt.



Set the dish tilt, make sure the surface you mounted the dish on is 100% straight (ie. 90° angle).

The placement of the dish is done using a "brace" with a degree indication used for the tilt offeset, this picture and the zoomed picture below will make things a bit easier to understand:



The A marked box in the picture above, is zoomed in the picture below:



Here we see an 29,5° vertical tilt of the dish ...

Step 3: Hooking up the receiver ...
We can now hookup the equipment. This can be a regular satellite receiver of for example a DVB-card for your PC (suitable for satellite reception). It doens't really matter what you choose to use, as long as it is capable of displaying the reception signal strength. We will need this for the fine tuning later on.

In the manual of your equipment you will find how it's all to be connected. For all receivers, basically this is how it's done:

The antenna cable goes from the LNB to the SAT-receiver.

Step 4: Fine-tuning the dish
How to aim my dish?

1) Put all parts together
2) Place the LNB on the dish
3) Place the dish on your wall mounting or pole
4) The installation point has to be on spirit level!
5) Adjust the right elevation
6) Look here for your elevation
7) Put on the receiver
8) Go to your signal indicator via the menu
9) Aim the dish at the wanted satellite
10) Watch the signalindicator (SNR) in the menu. Now we start turning the dish.

Note: if you touch the dish while tightening it, it will influence the signal quality!

Start turning your dish in little steps fromleft till right. check after every step your signal!

Wait for at least 5 seconds between every step to see if the box locks. Follow these steps horizontal en vertical until your box locks with the strongest signal.

11) If the indication indicatoris between 65 and 80% you can tighten your dish.

Signal Indicator Dreambox:

Note: 100% is not nessecary, most of the times 70% is enough to have a good view. But maximize the signal strength!

12) Watch the signal indicator when you tighten the dish. It is not the first time that the signal is lost when screwing the dish :).

Tip: adjusting the dish is best done with 2 people, so one can look at the indicator.

Most common problems!
- Shortcut between the F-connects
- Elevation angle is not correct or the post is not on spirit level
- No patience!

Wall - mounting
With some wallbrackets it is possible to mount your dish on the wall of your house.

Nylonplugs and propellers are applied at barge walls, stole expansion anchors at brick walls. With the wrong use of wrong materials it is difficult to install the installation correct. That can cause damages to the house, or cause even danger for guides. At affirmative to a barge wall the propeller breaches in the barge and not in cement must
be bored. Cement becomes weaker, as it happens, in the course of years, even if heal jointing well done is. Barge on the other hand preserves their strenth. Drill not too dense against the edge or the stone will concern to break. The affirmative clamps of the dish must not be set higher than the upper three brick layers. Barge from upper ranges can will, as it happens, more separately sit if is bored, or once the hung dish will tremble by wind. Barge from lower ranges offer more firmness because they are pressed on each other by higher range.

Mounting on the roof
If you use an antennapile to mount the dish to, keep the big influence of wind in mind!



Mounting on a pile
If the dish is confirmed to a pile which stands for example in the garden, these must be galvanised. There are two possibilities for affirmative: first by screwing a floor plate to a concrete basis. Secondly by the pile for a third in the concrete basis part to place. In the last case must the pile becomes provide with a edge, or another guarantee, which has been confirmed in concrete. This to that prevent the pile can twist will. Here also a flag foot can bring help.



Depending on of the place in the Netherlands, the elevation of the Astra-satellites (19.2 East) are between 28 and the 31 degrees. How more northern the dish stands, the satellites are visible lower to the sky. The azimuth is between 160 and 155 degrees East (or between 20 and the 15 degrees at east of the south).

That the dish is aimed axactly at the satellite state - both concerning the azimuth and the elevatie - is important for three reasons:

- to ensure the indicators of the correct satellite are received;
- to exploit the maximum reception capacity of the dish;
- to prevent adjoining satellites disturb the reception.

A indicatormeter is no superfluous luxury for the installation. Particularly at the detection of errors with a good meter is at a priceless value. For the digital indicator distribution a indicatormeter with an errorindicator is recommend.

After the elevation angle have been determined, it can be placed in approximately the good elevation using the scale name on the back of the dish. In general a compass is not not precise enough to accomplish the setup of the dish exactly and immediately.

Your longitude, latitude and elevation can be found here, just fill in your country and place!

From the ' approximately good ' elevationangle, the best reception can be found by twisting the dish slowly to the right and left. Then you can, by adjusting the elevation and azimuth, set up the opimum the dish.

Then the stage has been reached, in which wrecks of the affirmative clamps of the dish can be twisted. Also this must happen with policy: for and to maintain the closely certain position of the dish do it bit by bit. It is important during and after the definite affirmative of the dish continuesly to check if the up to feasable indicator
is still a good signal.



The installation of the dish and LNB for digital reception is in principle the same as with analogous reception. But it is everything or nothing impact (being lacking a gradual quality reduction of good to bad picture at decreasing indicator) at digital television, disappears the picture entirely as soon as received indicator quality passes below a certain minimum signal. For this reason it is important to accomplish the dish optimally to obtain some reserves.