Installing skyDSL
Installing skyDSL is fairly straightforward - up to a point!
The easy part is fixing the satellite dish to a wall and running the cable to the computer. Please use good quality CT 100 satellite cable as ordinary TV cable will degrade the signal. You'll also need two 'F connectors' and some amalgamating tape to weatherproof the LNB connector. You'll also need a compass.
The hard part, as you've guessed, is finding the satellite.
It is 23,500 miles away, orbiting in the Clarke Belt, along with all the other TV, Weather, Spysats and Communications satellites.
It is at 33 degrees East (of South!), elevation is 19 degrees and it transmits on 11513 H/transponder A2 and 11637 H/transponder D2.
Be warned! Eurobird 3 can be a devil to locate and to save your patience, your temper and your sanity, you might be just as well to get a satellite installer to find it for you! Eurobird 3 transmits a digital signal and the beam seems to be fairly narrow. You're either on it or you aren't! If you do get an installer make sure that he has a professional satellite meter to locate the satellite, because if he hasn't then he'll probably be wasting your time and his!
That said, I have seen it done with the cheap, audible meters typically used for SKY TV by DIY'ers, but they need a lot of patience and a great deal of luck! If you are still prepared to try it then here's a few tips for you.
Dish Size
Use at least an 80cm dish - Sky dishes at 60cm are too small. Teles-SkyDSL suggests using a minimum of a 1 metre dish because we are so far West in relation to the rest of Mainland Europe and the Eurobird footprint, but I can get 100% signal strength and 100% signal quality with 80cm dishes and a PCI internal card. Just a point here - if you are using the external USB skyDSL decoder then the maximum signal strength I've seen is 75 - 80%. There seems to be an attenuation of the signal with a USB box but as long as you get good signal quality - 75 - 100% then you'll be fine.
Please note that if you order the €24.90 option, or above, you will get the hardware free which includes an 80cm dish. The package normally arrives 7-10 days from the order date.
Azimuth
If you already have SKY TV then use the direction that it is pointing at as a guide for Eurobird 3. SKY (Astra28) is at 28 degrees East. Eurobird 3 is at 33 degrees East so in relation to Astra28 that's 6 degrees East of Astra!
If you don't have SKY TV installed then make sure that you know where South is and don't forget about Magnetic Variation for your area. Magnetic Variation has to be applied to the compass bearing in order to get a TRUE direction. Satellite bearings are given as TRUE. In my area in Achill, Co. Mayo, Lat = 53 degrees, 58.7 minutes North, Long = 10 degrees, 4.5 minutes West, there's an 8 degree variation West, so the compass reading for Eurobird 3 is 26 degrees East.
To find TRUE South put a vertical pole in the ground, wait for a good sunny day (they do happen, honest!), and at exactly 12 noon, along the line of the shadow, towards the pole, will be TRUE South.
Elevation
This is where most DIY'ers go wrong so pay close attention!
The satellite dish that you will be using is known as an offset dish. This means that the LNB (signal receiver) is offset to the bottom of the reflector, in contrast to a typical circular parabolic dish where the feed is in front of the center of the reflector.
Now, not unreasonably, most people think that to receive satellite signals you have to point a satellite dish at the sky. Wrong! With an offset dish, to receive SKY TV for example, the dish is less than 90 degrees to the ground and to receive Eurobird 3 the dish is leaning forward into the ground!
Check out the photographs!
There should be an elevation indicator somewhere on the dish mount so set it at 19 degrees and you wont be too far off. Be aware though, that as you move the dish from side to side it sometimes slips down a bit and the elevation will have to be adjusted to compensate.
If you need any further help or advice you can get in touch here.
