DIY Cable TV Installations

We decided to come up with a complete DIY guide for installing or setting up a satellite dish & decoder for DSTV, MyTV, Multi TV & etcetera by following after a simple tut.

This idea was birthed 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.

We strongly advice you ignore this if you have a phobia for learning new stuff or not a big fan of do-it-yourself (DIY) guides. It can come in handy for new installations, adjusting dish positions and/or when relocating to a remote area.

Post Outline

    Tools Needed
        Extra Tools
    How to Setup the Satellite Dish
    How to Configure the Decoder, Activate smart card and free-to-air channels for first viewing
        Orbital Position & Frequencies for Popular Digital Satellite TV Providers
    Scanning for Satellite TV Channels & Completing the Setup
        DSTV Free-to-air Channels
        How to activate a DSTV Smart Card for First Use
        What if there’s the E16 Error Code?
        DSTV Satellite Dish Signal Troubleshooting Tips
    How to Record TV Shows, FM Radio and Satellite Programs

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). But you can buy cheap digital satellite signal finding meters online. Either from here, here and/or any of the top online shopping malls with reputable sellers.

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 tools section 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.

After mounting your satellite dish correctly, you can safely move ahead to the next and final steps covered below.

How to Configure the Decoder, Activate smart card and free-to-air channels for first viewing

This is the part where your digital satellite signal meter will come into play. Plug the Coaxial cable into the Lnbf  base of the main dish assembly and then plug the other end of the cable into the LNB in (Antenna) port in the back of a digital satellite signal meter or a strong decoder.

Complete the second part also known as dish alignment by locating east, west, points and degrees depending on the satellite tv provider you intend doing the setup for.

Do note that for this tutorial, we used a strong decoder (as a digital satellite signal meter) to install a DSTV satellite dish and then connected the lnbf cable to the DSTV decoder to watch all the channels available for our selected plan.

The angular position, polarity and transponder values for popular satellite providers is listed below for your perusal.
Orbital Position & Frequencies for Popular Digital Satellite TV Providers

For Multi TV: Use –

    TURK SAT
    Orbital Position – EAST
    Transponder Frequency: 12553, 12525 or 12522
    Symbol rate: 19531, 27500 or 27000
    Polarity: Vertical

For DSTV: Use –

    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 My TV: Use –

    INTEL SAT, 7.10/K
    Orbital Position – West
    Transponder Frequency: 10986
    Symbol rate: 26657
    Polarity: Vertical

For CanalSat Afrique: Use –

    Orbital Position – EAST
    Transponder Frequency: 12722
    Symbol rate: 30000
    Polarity: Vertical

For HotBird: Use –

    Orbital Position – EAST
    Transponder Frequency: 11881
    Symbol rate: 27500
    Polarity: Vertical

For Nile SAT : Use –

    Orbital Position – West
    Transponder Frequency: 10.990 or 10.993 or 12.130
    Symbol rate: 27500
    Polarity: Vertical

Scanning for Satellite TV Channels & Completing the Setup

This is the last steps for installing a satellite dish yourself, once the polarity, orbital position and transponder values for your chosen satellite provider is noted, move on to this step to complete the channels scan and full activation.

From your strong decoder remote control, find Menu and then select installation. Enter 0000 as the password and Select manual scanning and then enter your satellite provider’s values as listed above Eg. eutelsat w4/7,  transponder frequency and the rest.

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 and Universal 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.
DSTV Satellite Dish Signal Troubleshooting Tips

DSTV Signal setup and troubleshooting guide
Save

This is an important update for those asking for help on how to properly position their satellite dishes after relocating from their old residence and/or when the dish position gets tampered with by kids playing within the surroundings.

This section would also come in handy for those experiencing very poor reception, distorted audio and poor visual rendition.

Here, you won’t be needing a digital meter or strong decoder as the built-in signal tunar function that comes with DSTV satellite dish decoders will suffice.

What you need do is this-

    Position your TV in such a way that- it can be viewed clearly while turning the satellite dish. You’ll need take it outside in most cases, or ask someone else to look at the TV and give you updates while you play around with the satellite dish positioning to various angles.
    Turn on the entire system and press the Help button on your remote control.
    Scroll down to general information and then Tunar Status to your right.
    Click to the Tunar status and use that to setup your satellite dish for best delivery. Anything between 60 and 98 is perfect and would be hardly disturbed by rain and/or poor weather.

Here’s a shot video to help you locate this menu option with ease.

Bonus Tip
How to Record TV Shows, FM Radio and Satellite 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.

    Select the device to use (for this guide, I’ll be using a PC. Note that there are such enhancement for smartphone and tablet devices)
    Get a USB TV tuner box/stick (assuming you don’t have one already). You can buy it from Amazon INC. by following after this link or from their listing page here. There are cheaper models of USB TV tuner stick on Aliexpress too, you can buy one of those from this page. (Note that older desktop computers uses the PCI component for TV tuning, there’s likely the chance that yours has one already for second-hand buys).
    Connect the USB TV stick to your PC and then, connect the RCA from the decoder to it or use the RF-out to sync between your regular TV and USB TV card.
    Install the USB TV box software and support drivers.
    Select any channel of your choice and hit record to the save for future viewing. You can record FM stations and similar programs as long as they work on your PC.

Note: You can record both satellite TV programs and regular TV shows with this guide. You can also use your regular TV cards (for desktop computers) to record live TV shows by upgrading the support software to their latest version.

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