Had my hand forced on this . Been thinking of sticking up a dish to look at freesat stuff/Sky freebies, as more & more of Mrs V's favourites on freeview are moving to satellite only. but now council /Eon are putting in external wall cladding, meaning that there might be a ban on things mounted on walls. If I get one up now,before the cladding goes in ,I'll get a pukka wall fixing ( and possibly the resident/retained satellite engineer to align dish). Got rough idea of position needed as next door have a dish. Astra ( freesat) is quoted as 28.2deg East, which I take as being 144 degree south of north . I've picked up a signal strength meter, but from manual ,it looks like the LNB is an active device. From what I read ,it looks like aligning dish to the bearing, and playing with angle of dish and bearing to get best signal. Anyone got any more advice.

From what I read ,it looks like aligning dish to the bearing, and playing with angle of dish and bearing to get best signal. Anyone got any more advice.

I've not fitted one for a long time but IIRC the dish angle is set first (there will be a gauge on the mount and info from the net) so then you only have to find the right satellite.

Why not get it up now so that when the cladding gets done you get your new bracket. If the resident engineer does it then he will align it, doesn't mean it has to be correctly aligned before.

Why not get it up now so that when the cladding gets done you get your new bracket. If the resident engineer does it then he will align it, doesn't mean it has to be correctly aligned before.

That is the idea.But since I've got the alignment kit,thought I'd give it a go . From alignment instructions,looks like LNB is an active device ,power fed from STB . Got an idea of rough bearing and inclination, and next door has a working dish ,so got rough idea of where to point dish . From net ,Astra satellite is 28.2 East, corresponding to approx 144deg from North.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Satellite-Finder-Digital-Signal-Meter-LNB-/200817116234?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Signal_Finders&hash=item2ec1a2044a

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2ec1a2044a

Always a tad touchy about second hand test kit( I would start with maximum attenuation ,so as not to upset circuitry-has the previous owner) . I got a new one for a few quid more in Maplin. And there's no guarantee that the price tag won't go a lot higher. Thanks for the thought. Set up dish on meter and although signal is lower than what I might expect, picture is good. Wife is over moon,as there's now more CSI/NCIS stuff on Freesat. Hopefully resident ( eastern European satelite engineer) will know how to get a bit more ooomph .One thing that strikes me is that although the blokes all wear EoN high viz vests ,and drive ROI registered vans, they all talk in what seems to be an eastern European language. Next door neighbour is a lady from Russia, and both her and eldest son seem to be able to converse in some common language.

I got a "sat finder" thingy. It does a metal detector type rising tone as you get closer to "lock". Useful as it slips in your shirt or coat pocket. You're not trying to look at it either, whilst trying to not fall off a ladder 20 feet up. Though for ultimate accuracy, I guess a meter might be be better.

I got one at Maplins, it's got an attenuator ,plus a meter and a tone which rises to indicate rising signal level . Took a few minutes to set dish up.Only needed the bearing setting to get 8-% signal .( Not bothered too much about getting thinks 100% ,as dish will get moved shortly ,and ,hopefully the resident engineer will align it )

I bought a dish off of flea bay with a signal meter included.

All I did was to look at the dishes on other properties and fit mine at a similar position, then I did the vertical and horizontal alignment using the meter.

At the freesat Humax box it shows something around 98% on the signal bar, so I can't be too far out.

Played with cables today.And now my signal is 100 OK .

And the answer to my question- is LNB powerfed from STB is yes. Without getting too echnical ( some satelite bod will no doubt correct ) ,there seems to be some sort of active "front end," frequency change in the LNB. Thinking back to radio/ digital stuff- it's possibly a regenerator/ clock change idea, as I've rad that STB controls LNB, so possibly almost similar to an IF setup in a radio /TV .