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Sky TV in Valencia. UK TV in Valencia. Satellite TV News and Information
Xativa and Ontinyent Tourist Information
All content used on this site are protected by copyright and should not be used without expressed permission. (C)2003 - 2012 J Worby
Costa Blanca Free Adverts and Business Directory
The Wall Of Shame - examples of poor satellite installations I have been called out to fix - Page 1
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This is just a small selection of the jobs I am called out to. These types of "installers" who originally did these jobs are the ones that give installers a bad name. I take the photos BEFORE I do anything to the dish, just to prove how bad some of them are!
This picture shows how not to connect cables together....they were just wrapped around each other and pushed into the plastic box to protect it from the rain...needless to say I redid the connection using proper connecters.
And here is some another "professional" cable connection - they must have run out of connectors so just tied the cables together.
This connection was left in a state whereby all the cable connecters were not protected from water, and the diseqc box was also not in a protective casing. The client called us to sort out this connection, as water from rainfall had gotten into the connections and rendered the switch useless, and therefore he had not satellite signal. Thankfully the system has not suffered a full short circuit which could have meant a new receiver! Needless to saw we replace the switch, provided plastic covering, and ensured water proofing.
This picture show you how not to install an LNB on a satellite dish. I found this Invacom LNB installed like this on this satellite dish when the client had got fed up of waiting for their installers to arrive and correct their no signal being received problem.
Yes, this Invacom LNB is actually installed upside down, with no rubber gators protecting the cable connection from water, which, when it rained water short circuited the system. On inspecting the damage I found that the cable run was actually THREE separate pieces of cable, all different makes, and the connections joining the cable has been “burnt” due to the short circuiting. Solution was a new LNB and a single cable run.
Another example of poor workmanship by a company in my area. I found that most of the nuts and bolts on this satellite dish installation were not tightened up, so the dish was not properly secured to the supports, and was actually moving along the bolts!!
I have found the above to be a regular thing with a certain installation company - usually they force the screws and they get miss-thread and so will not screw tightly....so they have to bodge a solution, which does not always work, meaning the dish is actually moving along the threads and not secure! They tried to stabilise the dish by the use of steel guide ropes attached to a point in the ground...would have been nice, but they attached the cable to the hoels around the outside of the dish and not the support, so the dish was being pulled and warped in winds!
I found this connection done by a rebroadcaster installer - a nice attempt to protect the splitters and mixers from the elements by not using any protective plastic casings. There was also a cable connection left in the gully of the roof tiles which had not kind of tape / water protection which mean that the connection was damaged in recent rains.
Another fine mess...how to rush a job and not take care and pride in how you lay the cables to the dish....especially where the dogs can get to the tubing / cables and bite into them.
Just how do you install a dish to a wall...I know, we shall just cut the existing support (10cm diameter) and put it onto a much smaller tube (8cm diameter) and join them together with only two 7mm bolts and nuts. Needless to say that he whole of the dish and "bodged" support moves every time there is a wind.
When you need to install a satellite dish onto a wall on the roof, and you need to secure it properly, you sometimes need access behind the wall. So you may need to make a hole in order to reach the bolts behind. But when you have finished you also need to cover the hole to prevent animals (birds etc) and water getting into the roof. Or you can just leave a big hole in the wall like here.
When I was called to this next satellite dish, to help realign it after recent winds, I was shocked to find that almost all of the bolts on the dish and support were loose (only about 3 or 4 bolts were tight). I was even more surprised when I saw that two of the main bolts that hold the dish to the ground stand were missing - they were no where around the dish so can only assume that they were never there in the first place....so the dish was being held onto the ground support by just one bolt and not the normal three. It was Crystal Clear this satellite TV system installation was not done correctly. (Apologies it is a bit tricky to see one of the missing bolts on the photo so I have marked it out for you).
And on an recently completed installation by the same company I found the LNB skew at an unusual angle. The clients had said that the system had never worked correctly from the beginning and now we can see why. Slight problem with the LNB skew angle, which should be more 7o clock, not 9o clock!. This angle is crucial in getting reception of channels.
Here is an satellite installation of a small 80cm dish...installed by a "big sky satellite service" company - a new company but apparently with "years of experience"...wonder if they have every heard of a spirit level...And because the U support was not straight the satellite dish was rubbing against the wall...you can just see some paint scratched off the wall
And this 1.35m satellite dish was installed by bolting to a wall with some small 8mm expanding bolts...in holes where the installer has drilled holes into the support for them...totally ignoring the actual holes predrilled in the support for much larger bolts.
One local installer installed two dishes on this property, both resulted in the same result as per the dish below. Unfortunately he only used on support bracket, where as if he had used two, as he should really have done, then the post would have been supported in a much better manner. Therefore in the wind the support pole was not secure causing the dish to fall. In fact the pole was not the correct sort of pole either...it looked like a fencing post and not a satellite support post! Needless to say the client was not happy about his loose dishes, and called us in to sort out the problem - and installed a new support!
A connection done by an installer based in Jalon - we have seen their handy work already on this page! They had used an electricity cable connector, on the right hand side cable, to join a satellite cable - which was incorrectly done anyway and was causing a short circuit in the system so not all channels were being received. You can see my F Connector, part of the correct method to connect two cables together, on the left to show what to use for a cable join.
One installation company decided to use an inline signal amplifier on this job. It would have a good idea to protect the amplifier and cable connection from the rain, but no it was just left out exposed to all the elements. Water got to the connection, caused a short circuit and also caused the Sky digibox to blow up and fail to work!
Another example of how not to join two cables together. Seemingly having run out of F connectors and barrel cable connectors, this installer decided to just force the main cables together and wrap tin foil around the rest of the cable in an attempt to protect the connection fro rain. Needless to say it failed.
This LNB was installed using some interesting techniques. Not only was the focal distance between the dish and the LNB incorrect, the adjustable outer ring of the feedhorn was not correct - ideally a few mm of the most inner ring should be visable, but instead it was a few mm in the opposite direction! The tape was being used to hold the adjustable part of the feedhorn in place, which they would not have needed to do if they has screwed the adjustable part tot he correct position!
At least one other installer had been to this installation, and charged for a new LNB before I was called in. The client has said they were losing signals randomly. He had not spotted the very visible split along the cable right next to the satellite dish, which had been damaged by lots of water getting into it. Not only that but they also failed to spot the concrete base was failing and the dish was rocking out of alignment in the wind - no new LNB was actually required!
Again, another example of how not to join two satellite TV cables together.
This was a first for me. Connecting a cable to an LNB without using an F connector. Instead just ram the cable into the LNB and tape it all together!
Using a support for a 1m satellite dish to install a 1.8m satellite dish on - obviously this is not secure, and the dish moved even in thelightest winds.
Why use a proper LNB bracket to support two LNBs when some cable ties do the trick almost as well...
Not the best way to attach a cable to a roof.
Another example of how not to connect two lengths of coax cable
