Best Location for a Satellite Dish Installation

A satellite dish should be installed in an area with a good clear line of sight to the satellites, free from obstructions like trees and walls.

A satellite dish should also be installed in an area that is sheltered from the winds, where dish wobble is kept to a minimum.

Rain and very heavy cloud cover can reduced the level of signals from the satellite to your satellite dish. Even the largest 2.4m satellite dishes can and will lose some of the weaker signal channels in very heavy rain. Bad weather affects signals everywhere, even in the UK. There is not a lot that can be done about this, but then in Spain we are blessed with a large amount of “non rain” days.

Satellite dishes can be wall or floor mounted.

With walls mounted satellite dishes, it is important that the wall is a good strong wall, ideally concrete block. Red brick walls, very common in Spain, are not that strong, and not suitable for the heavy “big” satellite dishes.

With floor mounted satellite dishes, ideally a concrete base or plinth should be constructed to mount the floor stand on. It is important that this concrete plinth is constructed well and given enough time to dry properly as I have visited several installations by other companies whose concrete plinths have been constructed by using a dry quick concrete mix or by making the surround with concrete breeze blocks and only filling the middle of the square with concrete.

A concrete base satellite installation, must be left to dry for a few days before installation continues

A failed concrete base satellite installation, using quick dry concrete so the installation could be completed quickly (for the installer).

Drilling into roofs and tiles should not be done, but if it is the only option then plenty of silicon will be required to protect the roof from rain water entering the drilled holes.