Installation Equipment and advice

Product 1103

Professional Installation Meter

Wolsey Lacuna Meter

Price 320GBP / 480 Euro includes accessories.

Designed for professional satellite installers with the aim of providing a tool to ensure quick, optimised reception of satellite signals. The meter
has been designed and tested to withstand the vigorous demands of the installation industry. Constructed in a shock absorbent ABS case with an ergonomically angled screen that maximises visibility when the neck strap is worn. The meters are programmable for use worldwide and software upgrades can be obtained from the website. http://www.metersupport.co.uk
and downloaded to the meter using the data lead provided.

click the image for more specifications

Product 1105

DIY User Installation meter - Satfinder

Full featured digital and analogue satellite meter with LCD screen. Ideal for setting up a motorised or fixed dish system. The Digisat Pro offers Diseqc Switch testing and will check both LNB's at once in a Two-Satellite DiSEqC system.

Furthermore the Pro can drive a Diseqc Motor East and West, ideal for moving the motor while you set up and track the arc on a motorised system. These meters are very sensitive & can detect weak signals. Works very well in Europe, America and Canada. Also useful for caravans etc.

Can detect 13/18 V (and mA) +22 kHz + DiSEqC from the receiver
Can transmit 22 kHz and DiSEqC to the LNB
Can be set up as a 2-way switch (13/18 V, 22 kHz and DiSEqC)
Can run a DiSEqC - actuator (East/West) with DiSEqC 1.2

satellite installation meter

Product 1107

DIY User Installation meter satfinder pro for twin INPUTS

As above plus, can Measure 2 LNB's at the same time
Can detect 13/18 V (and mA) +22 kHz + DiSEqC from the receiver
Can transmit 22 kHz and DiSEqC to the LNB
Can be set up as a 2-way switch (13/18 V, 22 kHz and DiSEqC)
Can run a DiSEqC - actuator (East/West) with DiSEqC 1.2

satellite installation meter

Satellite Dish Alignment and Sizing

If you want to align a dish yourself, then the following notes will assist you and you can save money on installation. Most people will get a professional installer to install their dish but with a few DIY tools and patience it is not that difficult to do yourself.

If you are realigning a dish after a storm or to change to a neighbouring satellite then finding the correct position will not be so difficult, but what about a new dish - straight out of the box?

We will not cover any information concerning fixing a dish here, if you cannot climb a ladder or assemble the dish and it's components then you will probably not be able to align it either.

You need to look at the footprints to determine whether you are inside the reception area of the signals for the channels you wish to receive, then you need to look at the signal strength of those signals and buy an appropriate sized dish, this can be relatively easy for the bulk of people but becomes tricky for expats etc when for example they are on the fringe of the footprint. Good links to footprints can be found from http://www.lyngsat.com

Be very careful assembling the dish, if using an offset dish ensure that you don't bend the feed arm, assemble it correctly and ensure the mount which you are using - be it a pole, garden stand or other method is perfectly horizontal, (or of course spend several thousand and get yourself an automated self aligning dish with built in gyroscope - such as is used on yachts - if you are interested in products suitable for yachts please contact us). If you are assembling a prime focus dish, in most cases these dishes are ground mounted due to the weight and the size, however a much overlooked area is the panel assembly - you must ensure that the panels are perfectly assembled - that the joints are smooth - that there is no gaps between the panels and that one panel is not visibly sitting higher or lower than others, - spend time assembling a prime focus dish - ensure you do this with care or you lose substantial amounts of gain. If you are using a tubular dish with integrated LNB then follow the makers instructions.

One of the most elementary mistakes a beginner will make is getting the azimuth wrong, the direction varies with the dish's position so you need to know your latitude and longitude. East of south will be expressed as a positive number and west as a negative.

the formulae for this is actually fairly long complex but you can download software which does the calculations for you, we recommend SMW Link at http://www.sme.se and there are several other versions available some free, some online and some which need to be bought, but the principals remain the same.

Using the information you have calculated setup your dish as close as possible to the parameters output from the software, since not all dishes are properly calibrated and indicators by manufacturer's can be crude we will call this your guess position.

You might be able to get an idea of the direction and rough elevation of the dish by looking at a neighbours property, but this cannot be relied upon - their equipment may be pointing at a completely different satellite. The most normal type of satellite dish available is an offset dish (the type with the LNB and arm at the bottom of the dish), these don't appear to look directly at the satellite and the elevation markings are often marked on the mounting plate at the back - these markings are only accurate if the mounting plate is perfectly vertical.

The other type of dish is called a prime focus dish, these point directly at the satellite and tend to be associated with large dishes of 1.2metres and bigger, these must be perfectly assembled or you will lose a large amount of signal strength - they also tend to be much harder to align because the focal point is tight and has very little margin for error.

You need to be able to measure the strength of the signal being received and for this you will need a reasonable quality meter, we don't recommend using the receiver since often the signal meters in receivers are not in real time and tend to be updated every few seconds. Meters can start from a few pounds or euros to thousands for state of the art spectrum analysers, we offer some meters for sale within our site.

Connect the LNB to the meter, the meter to the receiver (make sure you use the correct type of cable - a high quality satellite co-axial and not regular cheap TV antenna cable!). The meter display should at minimum show the overall signal strength received, perhaps also the quality, the satellite or even an individual transponder measurement (depending on the type). If your very lucky the signal strength will surge up and the satellite receiver will lock - but more likely you will have to search for the satellite. Start from your guess position which you have calculated now move the dish in tiny increments up and down, then left and right, your aim is to get the best signal strength and quality. With the small offset dishes which have a wide beam width this will be easy and you should be alerted that you a very close, with the larger prime focus dishes, you have to be very careful, a small deviation and you will lose track of the satellite very easily. Once you have done this, scan the channels with your receiver if you get no channels or not the ones which you expect then you have probably got the wrong satellite and you need to start the procedure from the beginning.

Expensive meters will analyse the signal and tell you which satellite you have found from the beginning, the cheaper ones only give you an indication of strength and quality, the cheapest will only give an indication of strength and can be subject to interference from terrestrial signals and reflections.

When you have found the correct satellite and began tweaking for best signal you may find that you have 100% readings, perhaps for example with Sky in fringe areas where your dish will be oversized for many channels and just right for BBC and ITV, - with a cheap meter you cannot distinguish between these strong signals and the weak signals which you are trying to optimise so you may need to attenuate your signal using a piece of wet cotton draped over part of the dish - this stops some of the signal getting to the LNB.

Finally once you have optimised the dish position you have to set the skew of the LNB (referred to as polarisation in the SMW software) - on some dishes for specific satellites such as the sky minidish - this is preset, but on most you will need to rotate the LNB to find the strongest signal. In fringe areas this can become extremely critical Channel 4 and Channel 5 as example are highly sensitive to skew in southern Europe, such as costa-del-sol of Spain, Iberia, Morroco etc..

You should now be finished, Now remember to tighten all the bolts and ensure you've disconnected the meter and waterproofed the connections using amalgamating tape etc - we don't recommend that you attempt this using just the signal strength meter from the receiver, not unless you are very patient and your friends, family, neigbours, children etc can tolerate cursing and ill tempered frustrated DIY installers.

If you have a correct sized dish, and it is well aligned, rain and light snow should not affect the picture, if it does, you may need a larger dish - or perhaps consider realigning on a different satellite for an alternative range of channels.

This information is provided as is, we may consider to periodically update it, but if you wish to add improvements or further information then please contact us.

INSTALLATION - Equipment and advice.

Satellite Dish Alignment and Sizing