I'm one of these ludites who's resisted having sky up to now, but I'm being pressured by the kids and I'm tempted by the current offers.

However, I live in an old stone house and i hate having surface mounted wires and doubt that any installer would get the cables in in a manner I'd be happy with.

That leaves me with the option of installing cables myself, and letting an installer put the dish up and use the cables.

Now obviously I know where one end will be (by the tele), but how do I know where to route the cable to? I assume there must be some fairy simple way to work out where the dish needs to go. Can anyone help me out?

Also, what cable do I need to get? Any sky installers out there that can give me the rules (eg I know BT have issues if you live high up in a flat etc). It's a normal 2 story house, so it wouldn't ever be very high, but is there a maximum height you can install at?

Have a look on your neighbours houses and see which way their dishes point. Our is pointing towards the south east IIRC. The dish is probably about 4m off the ground. On my house the last lot ran the cable up from the dish and around the eves and then down the front of the house so you don't really notice it, you can't see it at all from the side of the house.

One thing though, I presume the height will be restricted by any other buildings or large trees nearby that could block the signal, I assume they need line of sight to get a good signal.

I'm one of these ludites who's resisted having sky up to now, but I'm being pressured by the kids and I'm tempted by the current offers.

However, I live in an old stone house and i hate having surface mounted wires and doubt that any installer would get the cables in in a manner I'd be happy with.

That leaves me with the option of installing cables myself, and letting an installer put the dish up and use the cables.

Now obviously I know where one end will be (by the tele), but how do I know where to route the cable to? I assume there must be some fairy simple way to work out where the dish needs to go. Can anyone help me out?

UKSatelliteHelp.co.uk - Satellite Dish Alignment / Setup Calculator 2.0

Have a look on your neighbours houses and see which way their dishes point.

Nice try.....

Google Maps

Our is pointing towards the south east IIRC. The dish is probably about 4m off the ground. On my house the last lot ran the cable up from the dish and around the eves and then down the front of the house so you don't really notice it, you can't see it at all from the side of the house.

One thing though, I presume the height will be restricted by any other buildings or large trees nearby that could block the signal, I assume they need line of sight to get a good signal.

It's not so much the outside - you're right I probably could lose it outside.

Internally, the TV is right in the center of the house. I can get close, via the roof and inside a wardrobe. The room the tv is in needs redecorating, so I'll surface fix to the wall for now and chase in when we redecorate, but I know (guess) an installer would want basically to come in and get off asap, not wait while I route the cable.

Thanks anyway

UKSatelliteHelp.co.uk - Satellite Dish Alignment / Setup Calculator 2.0

Useful site, thanks (although I just found it doesn't work in Firefox)

Nice try.....

Google Maps

It's not so much the outside - you're right I probably could lose it outside.

Internally, the TV is right in the center of the house. I can get close, via the roof and inside a wardrobe. The room the tv is in needs redecorating, so I'll surface fix to the wall for now and chase in when we redecorate, but I know (guess) an installer would want basically to come in and get off asap, not wait while I route the cable.

Thanks anyway

Got any binoculars? Failing that send the butler out to have a look around

You could run the cable without fixing it properly and you could drill the holes inside up to the roof before the installer turn up. They left about four foot of spare cable behind our TV when they first did our sky so there don't seem to be stingy with the cable. nMake sure there is some slack and then mess around with it later. It's only coax cable so you can o it pretty easily. Unless your having Sky+ or HD when you have more cables to content with.

Got any binoculars? Failing that send the butler out to have a look around

You could run the cable without fixing it properly and you could drill the holes inside up to the roof before the installer turn up. They left about four foot of spare cable behind our TV when they first did our sky so there don't seem to be stingy with the cable. nMake sure there is some slack and then mess around with it later. It's only coax cable so you can o it pretty easily. Unless your having Sky+ or HD when you have more cables to content with.

Sky+ is the current offer, so that seems to be the one to go for. I'd assumed one cable from the dish to the TV, are there more?

Sky+ is the current offer, so that seems to be the one to go for. I'd assumed one cable from the dish to the TV, are there more?

Sky+ will use two cable runs so you can record two channels simultaneously - it's a little different from a terrestrial aerial situation.

Oh , and I suspect you already know but you can't use standard TV aerial coax - stuff for a satellite is higher grade.

2 cables for sky+ - so you can record one thing while watching another, the box has two signal decoders/processors in it so needs two feeds. I have found you can record two things simultaneously while watching something you had already recorded, quite handy really.

I think you have four cables for HD.

Sky+ will use two cable runs so you can record two channels simultaneously - it's a little different from a terrestrial aerial situation.

Oh , and I suspect you already know but you can't use standard TV aerial coax - stuff for a satellite is higher grade.

but if i get something that calls itself tv/satellite cable, will that do?

such as Toolstation > Electrical > Cable > TV / Satellite Cable AL/CU (RG6)

or am i better off with Coaxial Satellite Cable PF100 Black 100m - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys

when we got ours done, also in a remote area and with various cabling issues, the installer came out told me where he would put the dish, left me plenty cable then came back to complete the job once I had run the cables. only exrta charge was for a bit extra lengh of cable.

but if i get something that calls itself tv/satellite cable, will that do?

such as Toolstation > Electrical > Cable > TV / Satellite Cable AL/CU (RG6)

or am i better off with Coaxial Satellite Cable PF100 Black 100m - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys

Bill can explain it far better than I could , but yes , you do need satellite cable.

Articles | Co-ax cable quality - how much does it matter?

Bill can explain it far better than I could , but yes , you do need satellite cable.

Articles | Co-ax cable quality - how much does it matter?

I suspect that just by knowing where that article is, you must have some idea what you're talking about

:bowdown1:

The satellite you are after is Astra2, which is 28.2 degrees east of south (a compass will help) also as others have said, seeing where a neighbours dish is pointing will give you a rough idea. Make sure there are no trees in the line of sight of the dish, trees can block the signal as they grow.

As for cable try and get hold of "shotgun cable" (i use WF65) this is twin coax cable (two cables bonded together like speaker cable). This cable will cover you for sky, sky+ and skyhd. Also in the future if you dump sky and go with freesat or freesat+

Shotgun cable uses different F-connectors than the likes of RG6 cable, shotgun cable is thinner. But the sky installer should have these.

Hope this helps

John

The satellite you are after is Astra2, which is 28.2 degrees east of south (a compass will help) also as others have said, seeing where a neighbours dish is pointing will give you a rough idea. Make sure there are no trees in the line of sight of the dish, trees can block the signal as they grow.

As for cable try and get hold of "shotgun cable" (i use WF65) this is twin coax cable (two cables bonded together like speaker cable). This cable will cover you for sky, sky+ and skyhd. Also in the future if you dump sky and go with freesat or freesat+

Shotgun cable uses different F-connectors than the likes of RG6 cable, shotgun cable is thinner. But the sky installer should have these.

Hope this helps

John

cableguy

are you sure you know what you're talking about?

Thanks

by the way - is wf65 a grade of cable or specific to one manufacturer?

Edited 5 June, 200917 yr by sdenny

Best advice: Don't bother, got rid of ours about 12 months ago and haven't missed it in the slightest, any reruns (which is the bulk of sky) can be streamed on the pc as can missed programmes etc etc, the bairn is making more use out of the Wii and xbox and playing out more, so all in all £55 a month well saved

I suspect that just by knowing where that article is, you must have some idea what you're talking about

:bowdown1:

I used to be a store manager for Tandy , and Bill posts on a newsgroup I use which is where I know of his site from.

Best advice: Don't bother, got rid of ours about 12 months ago and haven't missed it in the slightest, any reruns (which is the bulk of sky) can be streamed on the pc as can missed programmes etc etc, the bairn is making more use out of the Wii and xbox and playing out more, so all in all £55 a month well saved

but that depends on what shows you watch and how many films/sports you want to watch, we rarely watch anything on terrestrial TV anymore.

Also remember the longer the cable, the lower the signal for the box.

I've run mine under the skirting in the gap created by having Laminate as I've moved the TV to the otherside of the room.

You'll start seeing loss over 20m IIRC. Our run is 50, and has 75% strength as the cable runs OVER the roof. Hoping to run it into the eve, and get it over the 2nd floor bedroom, to the rear of the house and save 15m and an ugly cable banging in the wind.

But it's not going to be easy to do :(

save 15m?? how steep is the pitch on your roof?!?! :eek:

Best advice: Don't bother, got rid of ours about 12 months ago and haven't missed it in the slightest, any reruns (which is the bulk of sky) can be streamed on the pc as can missed programmes etc etc, the bairn is making more use out of the Wii and xbox and playing out more, so all in all £55 a month well saved

Totally agree waste of money - just borrow other peoples box sets of things you miss, saves a fortune:D

Don't let the Sky monkey put it up as they seem to use blutack and 12" nails

any reruns (which is the bulk of sky) can be streamed on the pc

not practical if you only get crappy 1/2 meg broadband :(

save 15m?? how steep is the pitch on your roof?!?! :eek:

LOL, overall.

Bout 1/2 of that alone from the roof, the rest from poorly routing and a lump curled around the skylight.

Rough estimate of the length I'll be left with should bring me back to 90%+ strength.