Question:
Looking for some advice about Sky Digital. I know nothing about Sky, never had Sky or any other satellite service, but a friend of mine almost did. Let me explain.
[boring bit]
My mate, Stu, bought a brand new flat. Even thought the site was a new development there was no cable service provided so he decided to subscribe to Sky. He arranged for the installer to come around and when he arrived the chap from Sky informed Stu that the dish had to go on the rear wall. As the Living room was at the front he wanted to literally throw a coax cable over the pitched room and drill through the front wall. As the flat had only just been built Stu was reluctant to have a hole drilled in his new wall and white cable draped over the roof. After a ‘discussion’, the installer left Stu with several meters of coax cable and went on to the next job. He told Stu to contact Sky when he had run the cable. Stu and myself ran the cable thought the walls from the living room, into the attic and out under the soffit. He then called Sky.
Even though the cable had been run for them, Sky insisted that they could not use it and could only install the system if they ran the cable over the roof and through the front wall. A second ‘discussion’ was had and Stu sent Sky packing.
[/boring bit]
So, ignoring Stu’s ‘issue’ with Sky, he is still without the TV channels he wants, and he talking about buying a Sky dish and decoder from Ebay . Is it possible to install a sky dish yourself, do you need special equipment to tune it or can it just be pointed in the same direction as every other dish in the same housing development. Assuming the dish can be set up correctly how easy is it to set up the digbox and had do you go about getting a working subscriber card (Stu got a card from Sky in the post before the installer came around, I’m assuming it won’t work).
Is it worth the hassle, can it even be done and if is it, how much is a second hand dish and decoder worth, and what models are to be avoided and which are the one to go for?
Can anyone help?
Call $ly back and arrange an installation - don't tell them you've got the cable run done. Trust me, when the fitter comes to do the job and finds out the cable has already been run he will be turning cart wheels ( well not quite, but it won't bother him). As long as you are happy to sign off his job sheet that the job has been left to your satisfaction.
It can be done as I have installed both fixed and motorised dishes in the past, what you need is a reasonable sat meter ( I use a digimeter) these cost around £50 and have both audioble and visual readings, try www.hisat.com, then fix the dish to a wall that you can receive a signal and align the dish roughly using a neighbours dish, connect one end of the sat meter to the lnb using a fly lead and the output of the meter to the cable that connects from the lnb to the receiver(which is switched on conected to the tv and tuned to sky) , move the dish until you get the strongest signal possible and hopefully this should get you up and running.
As for which make to buy I think there is not much to chose between makes as i have an amstrad and a pace and can see no difference
[boring bit]
My mate, Stu, bought a brand new flat. Even thought the site was a new development there was no cable service provided so he decided to subscribe to Sky. He arranged for the installer to come around and when he arrived the chap from Sky informed Stu that the dish had to go on the rear wall. As the Living room was at the front he wanted to literally throw a coax cable over the pitched room and drill through the front wall. As the flat had only just been built Stu was reluctant to have a hole drilled in his new wall and white cable draped over the roof. After a ‘discussion’, the installer left Stu with several meters of coax cable and went on to the next job. He told Stu to contact Sky when he had run the cable. Stu and myself ran the cable thought the walls from the living room, into the attic and out under the soffit. He then called Sky.
Even though the cable had been run for them, Sky insisted that they could not use it and could only install the system if they ran the cable over the roof and through the front wall. A second ‘discussion’ was had and Stu sent Sky packing.
[/boring bit]
So, ignoring Stu’s ‘issue’ with Sky, he is still without the TV channels he wants, and he talking about buying a Sky dish and decoder from Ebay . Is it possible to install a sky dish yourself, do you need special equipment to tune it or can it just be pointed in the same direction as every other dish in the same housing development. Assuming the dish can be set up correctly how easy is it to set up the digbox and had do you go about getting a working subscriber card (Stu got a card from Sky in the post before the installer came around, I’m assuming it won’t work).
Is it worth the hassle, can it even be done and if is it, how much is a second hand dish and decoder worth, and what models are to be avoided and which are the one to go for?
Can anyone help?
Answers:
Call $ly back and arrange an installation - don't tell them you've got the cable run done. Trust me, when the fitter comes to do the job and finds out the cable has already been run he will be turning cart wheels ( well not quite, but it won't bother him). As long as you are happy to sign off his job sheet that the job has been left to your satisfaction.
Answers:
It can be done as I have installed both fixed and motorised dishes in the past, what you need is a reasonable sat meter ( I use a digimeter) these cost around £50 and have both audioble and visual readings, try www.hisat.com, then fix the dish to a wall that you can receive a signal and align the dish roughly using a neighbours dish, connect one end of the sat meter to the lnb using a fly lead and the output of the meter to the cable that connects from the lnb to the receiver(which is switched on conected to the tv and tuned to sky) , move the dish until you get the strongest signal possible and hopefully this should get you up and running.
As for which make to buy I think there is not much to chose between makes as i have an amstrad and a pace and can see no difference
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