Dish selection and siting thoughts welcome

N

ninjastudent

Member
My Satellite Setup
Possibly Protek 9750 HD or Dreambox 800HD. Undecided.
My Location
Cardiff
Hello everyone. Been reading avidly for past two or three weeks and think I am ready to purchase a dish and satellite system. The picture is of the back of my house and I am thinking of placing a 80cm motorised dish at the point marked X. The small dish to the right is my neighbours. Now Ive read that motorised dishes can be a little noisy and I dont want to annoy my neighbour as the dish will be near his bedroom window. However, Im not a late watcher of TV. The dish im thinking of is an aluminium 80cm Orbital with the Technomate TM2300 motor and Titanium LNB (£154). Im thinking that the 480mm standoff T-Mount (£19.95) will get me clear of the gutter.

The TM2300 has plastic gears so is quieter, but the TM2600 has metal gears and should last longer, though be a bit noiser. Anyone have experience with the TM2600? Would the noise be too much near a bedroom wall? I know noise can be sujective but dont want to upset my neighbour.

Im looking to match this dish with either the Dreambox 800HD or the Protek 9750 HD. Still undecided. More reading to do.

Oh by the way I am looking at AMOS 2/3 for due south.

satellitedish.webp
 
I wouldn't say the plastic geared motors are quieter!

But if noise really is an issue, how about getting a multi-LNB bracket instead?

(Depends upon your viewing interests, of course, as you'll have a restricted number of Satellites, but silence and instantaneous Satellite change)

Forget Amos as your South Satellite - far too weak. Use AB3.
 
I googled the mount you mentioned, personally I wouldn't bother with it. Although it says it's ideal for a motor I disagree because the chances of you being able to get that short vertical section precisely vertical is very low indeed. Good old TK brackets and a decent bit of scaffold pole to get above the gutter would be my suggestion. I've just spent a weekend totally fine tuning my system to get every last bit of signal from 61W and 66E, you'd be surprised how much difference fractions of a degree make to accurate tracking, as I found out!
 
Yes, I would agree, use T+Ks, though I suspect that the bracket you had in mind would be strong enough, but especially on a victorian house a fair degree of adjustment allowance would be needed to get a vertical mount, which the T+Ks provide enough (usually). Looks an ideal position reception wise, assuming that you can get there safely and are good working left-handed.

Not really had a plastic (nylon) gear and metal gear motor side by side to compare their noise levels, but I have the feeling that metal are more noisy, pretty sure the TM2600 is anyway. Another possibility maybe, would be the wall on the side above the roof line, on an 8ft scaff pole, though the western arc may be limited to say 30W, but is further away from bedroom and most certainly the neighbour's wall.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice and comments so far.

Tivu: I will look to lock onto AB3 5W as my due south.

aceb: The reason why I went for the T mount was thinking it was an improvement over the mild steel mounts that come with a lot of cheaper Chinese imports. I guess I will have to make sure I use some secure bolts to hold everything against the wall as I imagine the weight will need to be factored in. Any recommendations would be appreciated for fixiings to the wall.

Robbo: Im right handed! But thankfully both are long and reasonably strong. Ive got a really good ladder, but unfortunately there isnt enough room up there for me and the missus. :-) Im going to look into Tivu's multi LNB suggestion. That might be a way forward. Will have to see how cost factors into that option.

I did have a quote from a local satellite company to install a 80cm motorised system and the Protek and it was £750. Im sure I can do it a lot cheaper my self and probably handpick better components.

What I lack in experience I will hopefully offset by researching and taking my time. Cheers everyone. Much appreciated.
 
Considering the possible noise disturbance to your neighbour, I too would suggest a multi LNB set up. However, if you decided to go with a motor, perhaps you could consider a fibreglass rather than metal dish. When I upgraded from a 1M metal dish to a 1.2M fibre the motor noise (which is amplified by the dish itself) was definitely diminished. It wasn't eradicated completely though. I'm not sure how available 1M fibre dishes in the UK are, a bit more research would be required.
 
sonnetpete said:
Considering the possible noise disturbance to your neighbour, I too would suggest a multi LNB set up. However, if you decided to go with a motor, perhaps you could consider a fibreglass rather than metal dish. When I upgraded from a 1M metal dish to a 1.2M fibre the motor noise (which is amplified by the dish itself) was definitely diminished. It wasn't eradicated completely though. I'm not sure how available 1M fibre dishes in the UK are, a bit more research would be required.
Click to expand...

triax make a fibre glass dish that is suited for coastal regions, might work on a diseqc motor depends on the weight.

_http://www.triax.com/AntennaSystems/SatRec/Dishes/DAP.aspx
 

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What satellites are you looking to get? That £154 price for 80cm dish + motor + LNB seems a bit steep as is the installation charge!

Is it your wall marked with X? To be honest, unless your neighbours live on the other side of the wall, they are unlikely to hear the motor noise.
 
HI

The quote of £750 was this the cheapest? there is other installers in cardiff that would do it cheaper than that the only reason i say this as robbo stated your not left handed this poses a challenge and it looks dangerous m8. just keep it safe and move over between both windows the motor isnt really that noisy mate and safety first..also at some point if you do use the metal mount the motor will move and need realigned m8 just take this in before you decide. also looking at the photo to you have access to the south facing wall of the extension just out of the picture if so take a pic and we can advise you on this m8..

good luck whatever you do

Chris
 
If you need any help with installation, I am not far from you on the other side of the estuary.
 
Am I correct in thinking its the guys bedroom to the right of the picture? If it is he shouldnt hear a thing from your motor unless your going to change sats at daft oclock in the morning when it is really quiet outside, to be honest if you live on or near a main road that can be heard from out your back then the road noise should drownd out the motor noise

where the X is in the picture, is that roof on the extention a flat roof or sloped? If its flat then thats a bonus because you can safely work from the flat roof with some steps and maybe mount it a little more to the left of the x

£750 for an install like that is a bad price, I`ve seen people pay less than that in spain (and they pay well over the odds for installs out there lol) I have a 1.1meter dish (£50) + a Maplin H&H motor (£50) + Inverto Black Ultra LNB (£15) so before install I paid £115 for my dish/motor/lnb set up, that is excluding coax cable, F plugs and T&K brackets + pole, the T&K brackets I allready had and the pole was salvaged from a volley ball set lol, I done the install myself and I`m still fine tuning it all

Before you go out and pay someone to do the install for you, give it a go yourself, you might be supprised, if you cant get it right and you`ve tried everything to get a lock on a satellite but cant, then get someone in to do the alligning for you, do you know a sky installer, if so try offering him £25/£50 to allign it for you, £50 is morethan enough to entise a sky engineer to get off his ass and up a ladder with a meter to do the fine tuning for you and £50 is double the price that a subcontractor gets for installing for sky (round here subbies used to get £27.50 per install but thats just dropped to £25 per install) so he`d morethan likely jump at the job if its only alligning the dish

You should be fine though once you get the dish and motor up there just dont rush it and dont expect to start at 2PM and be finished by 5PM, it might take you a few weekends to get it perfect and if you rush you can put yourself at risk and also surrounding propperty and people at risk too trying to rush

I`d get up there if its safe, get the brackets mounted and the pole level, then install the motor and make sure its level, then put the dish up, give it a week of messing with the motor and moving it a different times of the day then go and ask the guy next door if he can hear the motor and if it bothers him, if it does, take the motor down and return it to the place you bought it from telling them you want a refund as its not doing the job you expected it to and your now going down a different route, as long as its returned within 7 days you should get a refund but chances are you wont need one as the motor should do the job quiet enough
 
You can barely hear a motor, mines next to the window and I can just hear it when the window is open and don't see how it could be annoying. Just a whirring noise.
 
Lots of great replies. The window to the right is my neighbours bedroom. The roof to the left of the X is not flat but pitched and is the extension on to the back of my house. I havnt considered the wall at the back of the extension as there is little room to mount a dish, it would bring the dish closer to the house at the bottom of my garden, and I think impact upon the reception. My other neighbour, with whom I share (party wall rear extension) has only recently moved back in after having her footings reinforced. If she saw me up there with a ladder I am sure she would crack. :-)

Interesting thoughts on the motors not being that noisy, and yes I do not stay up too late. I only thought of placing the dish to the left of my bedroom window as a way to avoid disturbing my neighbour.

The quote I got for £750 was for both supplying and installing 80cm motorised dish and connection to one tv using a Protek 9750. I thought the price was excessive, thats why I thought go down the DIY route. There are very few installers in Cardiff. Mostly bog standard run of the mill installers.

I want a motorised unit as it gives me more flexibility for the future in that I can swap my stb as the need arises.

I think I will bite the bullet and go for the motorised system and ply the neighbour with wine.

Captain Jack, I might take you up on the offer. Thanks.

I will also look at other dish combinations. What I want more than anything is something that is good quality and will tolerate whatever the weather chucks at it. I want a low noise LNB and am now toying with a twin LNB so that I can run two tv. Otherwise it will be a modulator.
 
Get a Black Ultra Twin LNB. That'll do nicely
 
Tivù said:
Get a Black Ultra Twin LNB. That'll do nicely
Click to expand...

yes I would recommend this, I have been using one for months on my dishes.
 
Update to installation:

I have now aquired the following: a 5ft alloy scaffolding pole. 18" T&K bracket (hot dip galv), 5xM10 rawlbots, 4 2" U/V bolts, Inverto Ultra Quad LNB (I think Ive caught the satellite bug), Technomate TM2600 motor, and Orbital 80cm aluminium dish. All thats left to do is purchase 50m of WF100 or PF100 cable and a STB.
 
Ive been looking into cables and am torn between going down the single or twin (shotgun) route. Whilst the STB I have been thinking of is a single tuner I am also mindful that I could in the near future look at a twin tuner model and then have to look at running another cable. I have had a look around and havnt found much in the way of comments on the use of twin(shotgun) satellite cable and how it may or may not cause a problem with a motorised dish setup. I am aware that anything over 20m on a twin cable will see some signal loss, but I guess that will only come to the fore with weaker/fringe satellites.

What have been peoples experiences with twin cables? I reckon I am close to the 20m range from dish to front living room. Maybe Im just worrying about nothing :-)

Oh, and can a very nice mod permit me to PM Captain Jack? Thanks
 
Shotgun cable will only be more lossy if you use the WF65 shotgun, WF100 shotgun or similar has identical characteristics to the single variety. If you want a twin run, just run a second run of single cable, but use twin cable clips to make it look neater.
 
There are two types of shotgun cable in general use. There is the thin stuff and the thick stuff (eg webro wf65 and wf100 twin). Use the thick stuff, and there will be no difference to a single cable.

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