Basic Installation Guide

Designing your System
Making sure you have the correct equipment ensures that you will save a lot of time during installation, so we'll start off by designing the system.

Basic Satellite Installation
For a basic Sky Digital installation you will need:

• A satellite dish of suitable size for your region (as this is for Spain you will need a very large dish)
• Sky Digibox
• Cable (go for the best quality copper core, copper braid and copper foil foam filled type)
• Cable Clips
• F Connectors (twist on ones are convenient as they do not require special tools)
• Coach Bolts and raw plugs (to attach the dish to the wall)
• Self Amalgamating Tape (to make the connection to the LNB waterproof)
• Mastic for sealing hole gaps
• Tea and biscuits

Tools (a small tool box would usually contain everything you need)

• 11mm or 7/16 spanner for F connectors (although these are mostly tightened by hand)
• Hammer (for cable clips)
• Hammer Drill with masonry bits (suitably long enough to get through the wall)
• Socket set with extension bars for mounting the dish (10mm and 13mm sizes typically)
• Stanley knife
• Pliers
• Screwdrivers

Installing the dish
Most satellite dishes are simple to put together, follow the instructions included with your dish.

The dish needs to be aligned at 28.2° degrees East of South, before you even drill a hole in the wall make sure your wall faces in the right direction. Tip: A good clear line of sight to the south is required, close by tall buildings or trees can cause problems.

Once you have installed the dish you need to run the cable to the room your receiver is going to be installed.

Start at the top and work down you should clip the cable every 50cm, always run the cable horizontally or vertically, never diagonally across a wall. Avoid sharp bends in the cable (never fold the cable as this will affect the signal).

Aligning the dish
The HDSM satellite meter will enable you to make an accurate installation by using the first 4 selections within your meter.

V Astra2A Hi 28E
H Astra2A Hi 28E
V Astra2D Lo 28E
H Astra2D Lo 28E

The Astra satellites at 28.2° east have different coverage, the Astra 2D satellite has a smaller footprint (reception area, which is mostly over the UK and northern Europe) but can be received in Spain on a suitably large dish.

Astra 2A can be received all over Europe as it has a much wider footprint (that also covers Spain). Use the Astra 2A selections first to get your general direction, and then select the Astra 2D transponders for further peaking.

When aligning to Astra 2D very fine adjustment is required as the signal will be significantly weaker. You will need to adjust the dish in Azimuth and Elevation (left to right and up and down) the LNB will need to be adjusted for polarization (clockwise and counter clockwise) along with focus (in and out, towards and away from the dish) the most important measurement value will be the Q (second bar) this is the Pre BER value and is directly relative to the signal quality.

Advanced users: Once you are familiar with the above techniques you may wish to request a custom file that has selections that directly reference services such as BBC, ITV Channel 4 and Channel 5 for further minute adjustments.