HOW TO INSTALL A DSTV SATELLITE DISH  YOURSELF

We decided to come up with a complete DIY guide for installing or setting up a satellite dish & decoder for DSTV without paying an installer/technician after we recently installed one for a student who complained of having not even half our installation fees.

We concluded that a guide like this can help a lot of persons install their satellite dishes without a bug of any kind.

Following this guide step by step will help you install and setup your satellite Tv dishes without the usual missing channels, poor signal and related issues that happens as a result of low technical know-how for installing satellite dishes.

Tools Needed

 The Satellite dish and components (ie. Reflector, Lnbf and Decoder. They are usually sold together)

A good hammer

4 Pieces of 3-inches nail

I packet of cable clips (the one with nails)

10/13, and 14/15 combination, flat or ring spanner(s)

A cutter (or electric pliers)

A Black Solution Tape (cellotape)

A Screwdriver

F connectors (a minimum of 2) and Coaxial cables (1 full roll of Coaxial cable is about NGN1,000, $9)

A digital satellite signal meter (We used a strong decoder and so will be using it for references throughout this tutorial)

Extra Tools

This part is necessary if you are going to use a pipe and not the house roof, wall or wooden fetcher board before the roof.

The pipe must be fixed on an open space without trees and/or other hindrances. Below is the tools necessary for mounting your satellite dish in a open space outside the building or with a longer pipe.

A cup of Cement mixed with stones

a trowel

Cutlass or shovel (for digging of hole)

A paint of sand and a bucket of water

How to Setup the Satellite Dish

The satellite dish components will usually come in separate parts and must be arranged in such a way that makes it easy to receive signals and withstand strong wind.

The arrangement of the dish components depends on where you intend mounting it on, if you are going to mount it on a root, wall or wooden fetcher board of the building, look at the image below for how it should be coupled.

If you intend mounting it on a pipe outside the building, look at the image below and use the tools listed in the extra toolssection above to make it solid and well grounded.

                                                                

The last things needed to complete this section is to fit in the screws and nuts in the reflector’s (dish) rear and connect the LNBF accordingly. See images below for the tips.

EUTEL SAT W4 or Eutelsat W7

Orbital Position – EAST

Transponder Frequency: 12245, 11900, or 11747

Symbol rate: 27500

Polarity: Horizontal

Note that this particular settings works for High TV, Train TV & most other sports channels satellite providers.

For Dstv we did the setup as follows:

We selected Eutelsat w4/7
Under frequency, we put 12245
Under symbol rate, we put 27500
Under polarisation, we put H
At this point, the signal power and quality meter will start reading, start rotating your reflector (dish) up/down and side ways around 36 degrees east (see your neighbors own for tips or read directly from your digital satellite signal meter).

Watch the signal power and quality and tight the dish strongly once you are able to get values higher than 60% (We got 89% for ours).

Once a good signal quality is ascertained, your satellite dish is all setup.

Disconnect the LNB-in from your strong decoder (or digital satellite meter) and connect it to the DSTV decoder. Select English from the language options, E36A-B from the next window andUniversal for LNB type. Hit scan to install and complete the channels setup.

Note
: If you are using a digital signal meter, the scan option won’t be necessary. All you need do is, connect the LNB-in to the meter and enter the frequency, polarization and symbol rate values while aligning the dish for best signal quality.

DSTV Free-to-air Channels

Once your DSTV satellite dish is installed correctly, the following channels will show in clear qualities as they are free-to-air channel for all DSTV satellite dish owners.

Channel 100
Channel 198
Channel 409
Channel 447
Channel 449
How to activate a DSTV Smart Card for First Use

If you are activating your DSTV smart card for the first time, you will need to buy a subscription plan. All DSTV bouquets is listed here.

Insert your smart card and take note of the smart card number. Call 012703232 or 08039003788 to setup your account or dial *288# to follow the USSD prompt.

What if there’s the E16 Error Code?

This is a very common error with activating new accounts, you can correct this error if after 30 minutes of activation, your subscribed (premium) channels are yet to show up.

You can correct the E16 error by sending reset plus  your smartcard number (eg. reset 1234567890) as an SMS to 30333 or by using the clear error code – E16 option on the self-service section of the DSTV website.

Bonus Tip

How to Record TV Shows and Programs

DSTV explora hardware and some other premium satellite TV decoders lets you record events and programs for future viewing, but if you are using the HD version that doesn’t give such privileges, you can use this section for tips on how to record TV programs for future viewing.