Apologies for the new thread (as I'm sure the answer is here already but I've just spent 20 mins with the search function to no avail!)

We currently have freesat from sky and would like to get freesat + as don't want to spend £10 a month to use a satellite PVR. I believe that we will need to change our single LNB to a quad LNB so I was wondering if this is possible to do ourselves (the local installers just quoted an all-in price of £400 and wouldn't do it without replacing the satellite dish).

If it is possible, where would I find instructions? how difficult is it? and would we need to do anything else? (apart from plug in the humax HDR).

I don't even know what an LNB is or where it goes but my husband is a bit more of a tech head.

Thanks in advance!

Yes, you can do it yourself.

How easy you find it depends on your general DIY skills and where your dish is.

The steps are these:

1) Obtain a quad LNB and sufficient cable to easily reach the PVR from the dish. This cable can be single or, if you have any doubts about your current cable , you can replace it with double.

2) Remove the old LNB and fit the new one.

3) Run the new cable along with the old (or replace with a double). Where the cable enters your property you will most likely need to enlarge the hole - you may get away with not. If you are keeping the original cable it and can't feed it through the current hole you may be better off drilling a second hole.

4) Place F connectors on the equipment end of the cable.

5) Connect to the Humax.

6) Re-align the dish/LNB. (This may require a meter - post here (satellite > technical forum for further assistance on alignment) - or do a search.

£400! I just paid £90 for the same thing (sans new dish) and I thought even that was a bit steep.

There are several threads about this on DS, but for the most part they all point to the same page on SatCure: http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/page10.htm

You can buy a quad LNB from ebay for £10. Make sure it is suitable for a sky minidish (will say so in the listing). An extra length of cable is about £5, and no more than an hours labour.

So someone wanting to charge you £400 is really taking the P big time

As he said "all in", presumably that includes a Humax PVR as well?.

Which although not terribly cheap is a similar price to what antonyjohnston paid.

Ah, I hadn't considered that. If it includes the Humax, then it's not a complete ripoff. Still a bit steep, but unfortunately I'm terrible up high ladders so doing it myself wasn't an option (And I did get some other quotes that were almost £200!)

We don't know how high up OP's dish is. It would make a considerable difference.

If Nigel is correct (which I suspect is likely as anyone charging £400 to fit and wire a dish would go out of business pretty quickly) the ~£100 for fitting would be excessive if the dish is very close to the entry point and just below gutter level on a bungalow but perfectly reasonable if it's a long way from the entry point and near the apex of the roof on a tall two story house.

Also, OP should be aware that if the quote is reasonable after considering all the points mentioned, the fitter may have had a very good reason for insisting on replacing the dish (i.e. corrosion that may cause a failure in the next few years).

Mine was fitted on the Apex on a very long pole and I would never have paid a fitter anything like £400!! Mine cost £150 and that was an extra £45 because it was on the roof, needed a pole and required a 2 man fit.

.....

....and then £300 for the box , £300 +£150 = £450 , less the extra £45 because it was on a roof.......and its pretty similar to what you paid ,£400 all in ? .

As we don't know the work involved we are all guessing if it is OTT

A DIY job would save £'s possibly

You might think so, but when I was getting quotes nobody seemed to have the slightest interest in such details.

(In fact, the job on my house was very simple — the dish is on the same outside wall as the lounge, and the feed literally goes straight down, through the wall and bob's your uncle — but this made no difference to the quotes I was given.)

Sorry to be dense, but how can you know?

If any fitter is not making a distinction in the pricing for these things then they are either not going to be competitive on easy tasks or make a loss on more difficult ones.

Could have done a DIY job ?

I get what you mean , the installer possibly didn't even come out to view / cost the job , just gave you a ball park figure that covered most eventualities, if he gets the job at the inflated place that is good , if he doesn't get the job he possibly thinks it wasn't worth the cost of fuel and getting his ladders out to do the simple job

That it didn't make a difference? Because I asked them, of course. I'm a freelancer, hence I drive a hard bargain

As I said before, I'm not very good up anything higher than a stepladder, unfortunately. Otherwise I would have, no doubt.


I suspect that's entirely the case. They were all ballpark, and one fitter explicitly said that he quotes high because of the number of jobs where he turns up and there's more work than expected. My assurances were to no avail.

Slaps hand to forehead.

That's the one thing I didn't think of.

Thats interesting because I was given a 'fixed' price too. Then when he came out, he had a look outside with his meter, came back in and told me that my dish would need to go on the roof so it would be an extra £45. They said this was because it meant a 2 man job, however I watched them fit it and the other guy just stood on my path watching

So, I think where I live, they give you the lowest quote, to get the business, then bump it up when they get there.