Fixing Some Errors Encountered during Dish Installation.

Welcome back i believe you read about Location Of Satellite Positions Without Using sat finder.....Know how to Locate your Degree  If you haven't i recommend you read about it... its a first basics for any installer, you should know how to locate your degrees.

Today i will be going in to another level, today we will talk about the main installation, have you ever spent hours, days, months and even years..#winks... in trying to get a particular signal? but all your effort seems not to yield any result. Today i will be trashing some of the errors you might have made or you might overlook to be serious.

Before i Start. One thing i must tell any newbie in Dish installation is that you must be patient enough and very observant, its an error as an installer to repeat a mistake twice else you are not serious about your job. You should also be good in terms of experiment. you should always carry out different practicals, go for research and be updated most installers find it difficult to use certain decoders  this is simply because they don't really understand Satellite Terms and its functions, they work on what they know and they don't even read about dish installation. the truth is this you must read about it if you want to stay in the business. (thank God for Internet) join different satellite forums on facebook and webs, always be updated.

Now to the Discussion of the day..Fixing those errors.. you work and work yet the signals wont come. i have some explanation.

DISH-POSITIONING: The position of your dish really matters, are you trying to get a signal directly opposite a tree which is less than 5meter apart? or is there a very close high building less than 5meter apart? Anything whatsoever if its high enough and the meter is very close be sure your signal would be affected. the best Dish positioning is a location where by you can have a clear view of at least 20m to 30m. But if there is no space except that location, you can raise the dish above the building by increasing the length of the pole.

TYPE OF POLE:  yea the kind of poles you use for certain satellite matters alot. some poles wont suit some satellites, a dish plate is supposed to rest comfortably without shaking on a pole if you are to use pole. you might not need a pole for bigger dish.

first pics..the usual pole that comes with the dish

An external pole

Take a very good look at the two pics the first pics is the usual and common one we use. they come with the satelite dish. now watch this care fully look at the first pics. If you are to move the first dish directly opposite where its facing now it wont stand well compared to the second pix. except you turn the pole to face where your dish is to stay but for the second pix you don't need touch the pole.

Now to the error, some people might want to get a particular satellite and their pole is not well positioneed like i earlier said from the first pics. they might face the dish directly opposite without changing the poles direction...This will cause ill balancing which might affect the signal. USING a direct pole like in the second pix is best advised to use.. Also your pole should be align straight and the dish should be at the tip of the pole, and make sure it is not shaking tight the nuts a litle not too tight so you can move right and left.

CABLE: this is another factor that can alternate the flow of signal to your decoder… many a times we don’t take good care of our cables we fold it like we are folding normal ropes… a satellite signal transmit through a cable called coaxial this coaxial cable is very much different from normal wires. Its far more than just conducting electricity like copper but it transmits signals through it any when ever a single line is affected, it is bound to affect our signal. So I advice we deal carefully with our coaxial cables… when ever there is a bridge in other not to suffer your self big stress its better you cut of the bridged part and join the cables together… please note when even you want to join two direct coaxial cables I recommend you use a F-F connector. To join the cables because joining it like we normally do and using cello tape to cover and hold it is not advisable when tracking, some signals wont pop up because of that error… so as installers always check your cable connection.. make sure the negative and positive are separated properly when fixing the f-connector to the head.

an F-F Connector

F-connector on a cable

LNB: here is a very good reason why that signal is not coming.. if the lnb is bad of course there wont be any signal so always be sure the lnb is in good condition and you can know if the lnb is fault even before you start tracking... i always make sure i check this before i start.

HOW TO KNOW IF THE LNB IS IN GOOD WORKING CONDITION....

If the lnb is good there will be an indication on the decoder like in strong decoders, just get a working LNB if possible a working one with signal just loose the LNB to practicalize this for those who don't know how to check.... connect one end of the cable to the decoder and the other end to the LNB now goto installation and open manual sca or TP list and navigate to any TP. like in strong if the lnb is good the RED in the signal quality and quantity will be full but if the lnb is bad the signal will be half. for some decoders if the lnb is bad the signal quality will remain unchanged...... best way to do this is just connect the lnb to the decoder if there is any change when you Disconnect and connect the lnb then the lnb is good else it is bad. 

POLORIZATION: i know most of you wold say what is this polarization all about... in our ku band lnb we know its either the polarization of a frequency is Horizontal or Vertical and for cband LNB its either Right OR Left.. now to the error.. a particular frequency might be Vertical for example 11150 V 4500 this is frequency for continental TV.  you might be trying for hours and you didn't get the signal; it might just be that the polarization has changed. this most times is not from the satellite providers. it so happened because our lnb alternated its polarization.. so your neighbor might be  getting the continental package on 11150 v 45000 and yours is 11150 H 45000. your lnb can alternate at any time but this doesn't mean we should run in to conclusion easily when we are tracking you need to be sure you have tried everything before you change the polarization because you might compound your troubles the more...

i knew about this when i was tracking IRIB it took me two days before i tried changing the polarization and it took me less than 5mins to get the signal. so always be sure before you do this.

i hope you enjoyed this.. if you have any further question feel free to ask...

NEXT TUTORIAL: would be about MOTORIZATION
stay tuned