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John McGaw John McGaw is offline
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Default What do these numbers on a cable splitter really mean?

Fred Wilson wrote:
Hello all,

I have been having problems with my cable modem. I split the line where
it comes in the house. One leg to my modem, the other to the TV.

My internet kept dropping signal. I was sure to get a splitter that
provided a direct pass-thru to 7dB on both outputs.

There is a three way splitter on the line coming in from you pole. It
has output 7dB, 7dB, and 3.5dB.

Anyway, the cable guy came out and switched the hookup on the three-way
splitter. He took the line that goes to my cable modem and TV off of a
7dB terminal and out it on the 3.5dB terminal. All is well now.

how is this possible?

Thank fred.


For one thing, the signal coming from the 3.5dB port is 3.5dB stronger
than that from the 7dB port, the numbers in question being the level of
attenuation relative to the input port. That increase in signal level
might have been just what was needed to improve the situation. Of course
it might have been just a bad connection and any disconnect-reconnect
might have fixed it just as well.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com