Aligning a sky dish

[dern]

We had sky put in this house when we moved in about 5 years ago but as there was a dish already on the wall the engineer tested the signal and as it was fine simply hooked our box up to that and gave me the new dish+lmb as a spare.

Now our signal is degrading and the signal strength on the sky box is near zero although the quality is, in the main, ok but every now and again we get glitches.

What I'd like to do is take down the old dish and put the new one up with some new cabling and align it all. What do I need in order to do that? The signal meter on the box is very slow in reacting and I can't see it from up the ladder so can I buy a meter for a reasonable price and align it myself or am I better off getting someone in to do it for me?

Cheers,

Mark

PS. Both dishes are digital but slightly different so I can't simply swap the lmb.

PPS. We've tried cleaning the lmb and putting a damp cloth over it and using the box signal meter with a mate standing in front of the telly shouting "no, that's worse" and it worked for a bit but has been degrading since then.

>>> Edited by dern on Saturday 16th April 20:04

[parrot of doom]

1) LNB might be faulty

2) Dish might be mis-aligned

3) Water ingress into cable at LNB end

4) Faulty receiver




Check the cable is ok. Undo the Co-ax connector, if there is any sign of water contamination you'll need to trim the cable back and fix a new length (easily done with 2 connectors and a barrel). Make sure you wrap the finished connection securely with self-amalgamating tape, and then coat it with a thin layer of grease.

[parrot of doom]

As for alignment, have a google around, you'll need a compass and a protractor.

[sparkythecat]

You could buy yourself one of these.

www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=858&TabID=1&source=15&WorldID

[mybrainhurts]

Sure the trees haven't grown too big...?