Satellite Tv Dish Installation (Or How to Install a Satellite Dish)

The satellite dish installation process has to go through a few stages. The first one of them is preparing for installation, which includes:

• A thorough site survey, in which you need to visually survey your location to make sure it is suitable;
• Then, you need to obtain dish pointing coordinates. For that, you can use the on-screen menu system to obtain the exact coordinates (azimuth and elevation) where you need to point the dish at;
• Make sure that you select an exact place for mounting – the coordinates where you need to point the dish must be used here in order to conduct a precise site survey. This will be very helpful in determening the exact mounting place;
• Make an estimation of the total lenght of cable you will need – depending on where your mounting site is, you will need to decide where you want the cable to enter your home. This will give you at least an approximation of the total amount of cable you will need. To that, make sure you add a bit;
• Start the dish assembly process – Attach the reflector to the support arm so that you can preset the correct elevation;
• Set the elevation on dish. You need to make sure that your elevation setting is precise, a thing which will help you to more easily obtain the signal later on.
• Start mounting the mast.

The final installation has a few more steps, which are:
• Level the mast – The mast must be level to obtain the signal;
• Complete the dish assembly – Place the dish on the mast and connect the RG-6 coaxial cable to the LNB, and attach the LNB to the support arm;
• Route the cables to the grounding block – Attach a grounding block to the house and route the cables from the dish to the grounding block. Also, route grounding wire from the grounding block to the central building ground;
• Run the cables from grounding block into the house – Run the RG-6 cable from the grounding block into the house and to the back of the receiver;
• Make the final connections to the receiver – Connect the RG-6 to the satellite input on the receiver, and make the phone line connection;
• Acquire and fine-tune the satellite signal – For that, you have to use the on-screen signal meter to check for a signal. When the signal is finally obtained, adjust the dish pointing in order to achieve the desired signal strenght;

How do you know if you are suitable for the process? Well, although it is not that difficult, it does require at least some technical abilities. Also, you need to take into consideration that you will have to climb a ladder and do some wiring. However, if you have some experience in installing things like an antenna or a dimmer switch, a satellite dish installation will probably be pretty easy for you.