Your
Satellite Downlink
Installing
a New Satellite Dish
IN
THIS SECTION:
Site
Selection
Dish
Selection
LNB
Selection
Dish
and LNB Installation
Setting
and Adjusting the Antenna
Coaxial
Cable
Receivers
Dish
and LNB Installation
Selecting
a vendor:
Look for a company with more than just consumer back-yard installation
experience.
Call other radio stations, TV stations and cable TV systems for recommendations.
Radio satellite experience is more valuable than TV experience.
Look for a vendor that has experience installing dishes in the 3 to
5 meter range.
Ensuring
correct assembly:
Maintain the parabolic shape. Follow the
assembly instructions carefully. Once the dish is assembled, look across
the face of the dish along two diameters about 90 degrees apart. The
near and far edges should be in a single plane.
Set the focal length. which is the distance from the feed element
to the center of the main reflector. Sometimes it's called "F:D", for
focal-length-to-diameter ratio. Some dishes have fixed length rods to
prevent the focal length from being set incorrectly. For those dishes
with adjustable focal lengths, the manual may tell you to adjust it
to a specific measurement. You should treat this number as a starting
point and not the final adjustment. After the antenna is assembled and
pointed, you should adjust the focal length for the maximum desired
signal or minimum undesired signal, or both.
Prevent antenna icing. Both snow and freezing rain can distort
an antenna's pattern allowing increased adjacent satellite interference
as well as reducing the desired signal. Heaters can be used to keep
snow and ice from sticking to the dish. Heaters are very expensive ($1,500
to $3,000) and need to be turned on by an operator or an automatic device.
The cost of powering the heaters also needs to be taken into consideration.
Antenna covers are another option that places a vinyl or treated fabric
cover over the front of the satellite dish. Antenna covers are a medium
priced solution (about $1,000). Hydrophobic coatings, which can be painted
or sprayed on the dish, make the dish slippery so that snow and water
slide off the dish. It costs about $300 per application and lasts about
two years. Snow can also be removed the old fashioned way - with a broom
or a shovel. However, caution should be exercised to not dent the dish
and ruin the true parabola.
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