Living in a hilly part of the west country, TV reception has never been a strong point of the listed building I now live in. 4 channels, no Five, no freeview and a limited set of digital channels after the 2010/11 switch over. So Freesat seemed like the ideal answer (not prepared to pay for Sky).
Having made chipboard cutouts of a 60cm dish, a multimo and a Sqish (Selfsat) and clambered all over the roof it was clear that the only dish that would meet the listed building criteria "not visible" was the Sqish. I could hide this behind the chimney stack, in the gully between the roof and the parapet.
Next step purchasing:
Squish Duo from an online store
STB - Ordered a Goodmans SD for store collect from Currys. Waiting for PVRs before I get the HD box.
Cable & F plugs - PF100 cable and crimp F plugs
Satellite signal meter
The Satellite Shop were excellent, Currys had the box (last in stock) and
screwfix delivered the next day. Nothing wrong with the cable, but my first mistake (lesson 1) was to get the crimp F plugs - they didn't fit the cable or the crimping tool and made terrible connections. Had to go and buy screw on F plugs from Maplins at £1.99 each!
So Friday night came, everything laid out on the table, time to put the Sqish together. Simple instructions and because it comes with the wall/window/balcony/table/pole mount included - very easy to set up. I used the window mount to temporarily set it up and confirm angles etc before fixing to the wall.
Connected up the STB, meter and antenna (can't call it a dish), and easily found two signal hot spots according to the meter. BUT the freesat box showed no signal. No matter which of the two signals I turned it to nothing showed up, just a stubborn "no signal".
So faulty STB, or just pointing at the wrong satellite - no way of knowing. Spent the evening surfing the net and found that buying a simple FTA STB from Maplins was probably the easiest way of finding what satellite I was locked onto. Certainly cheaper than a clever meter. First thing Saturday down to Maplins and purchased a Fortec 4200 and those essential screw on F plugs.
Back home, made up some new cables, tweaked the antenna and 75% quality signal on Astra 2 - so easy. Plugged the Goodmans back in and it too now had a signal. So lesson 2 you have to set the satellite before turning on the Freesat box, otherwise no signal.
A few hours of drilling, running cables etc later and it was all installed. Slight issue with the "white finish" to the Sqish. Shows up badly against a slate roof, so next weekend I'll get the spray paint out and camouflage it a bit. In the meantime a bin liner works a treat! I know you can get stickers for the front, but the back, sides and bracket are all white.
On the upside (in my opinion) the cheaper Fortec box is easier to setup and has a better picture than the Goodmans Freesat - it certainly has more channels and avoids the painful "add FTA channels" process on the Freesat. Why can't the Freesat box just scan the satellite and add all the FTA channels? Or give me a list to select from instead of expecting me to have frequency numbers and polarisation details? On the downside the number of channels on the Fortec is daunting and I could do with an easy way of managing the list.
For now I have sat TV in two rooms and am trying not to watch TV 24x7!
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