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While many companies that offer satellite dishes also have their own installation teams, you can save yourself some expense by installing the unit yourself. With the right tools and a little mechanical skill, you can have the dish installed and properly adjusted in no time. The right tools are really important in ensuring that everything works properly. Let’s review a few tools that will be good to have on hand.

Cable fishing can be very time consuming without the right tools so investing in a cable retriever or at least renting one is an excellent idea. Rare earth magnets are used to pull line through drywall or to magnetically couple wires. The wire retrieval unit can be moved along the drywall to the desired location and then pulled out through the drywall. Since this eliminates the need for fish tape these cable retrievers can eliminate half the labor involved with installing a satellite dish.

Connectors need to be added to cables and compression tools to ensure that you have a solid connection that will not come apart. A professional compression tool will give you a watertight seal on the connector for your coaxial cable. Most manual compression tools feature a ratchet mechanism that reduces the amount of strain you put on your hand as you compress the fitting, as well as ergonomic hand grips which help to reduce fatigue. A good compression tool will feature interchangeable dies in order to compress several different types of connectors.

A coaxial cable stripper is another tool that is very useful when installing a satellite dish. Coaxial cable runs from the satellite dish to the receiver. A coaxial cable stripper takes one inch of cable off the rubber shielding that covers coaxial cable and allows it to easily slide into an F-connector. This creates a much better connection than those created by using a blade to strip the cable. A professional grade coaxial cable stripper will feature thumb adjustable blades and will not require an Allen wrench to adjust the blades. Professional grade cable cutters are also a nice tool to have on hand since it leaves a nice clean edge on the cable so that it smoothly and securely fits into the connector. Cable cutters also eliminate the need to use scissors to cut the coaxial cable which eliminates rough edges on the cable.

Cable testers can be used to verify the condition of a cable before installation and after installation. Simple LED wiring indicators let you know if there is a short in the wiring, no connection, a wrong connection or connected wires. This is very useful because any electrical problems can be quickly identified and fixed before the installation is completed.

If you don’t want to try and pick up all the individual tools, several companies offer satellite dish installation kits that include inexpensive versions of all the tools you need to successfully install a satellite dish unit at your home. Following the simple step-by-step instructions included with the kit will have you watching your favorite television programs in no time.