On Feb 8, 2:00*pm, amdx wrote:
Hi All,
I'm on a boat, about 170ft from the utility post.

That's about 10dB loss at midband for RG6.

Recently our cable company switched to the wonderful world of
Digital TV. I got the new digital converter and had no picture.
I took the box back and got a second box, still no picture. So now I
suspect a weak signal and confirm that it is the cable length. The cable
company came out and gave me a better cable than I had installed. At
this point I have a picture but it is intermittent. The signal at the
utility post has 3 outputs and had a four way splitter, I suggested the
cable guy put in two 2 way splitters and give me the stronger (first) tap..

That was just a 3dB boost.

* That got my signal to work almost all the time. I'd like to get the
signal to work 100% of the time.
* *I don't has access to electricity at the utility post, so an amp is
out. Although I could try an amp at the cable box end. Is that reasonable?

Really? There are such things a power inserters and compatible drop
amps that allow you to power the amplifier over the cable from the
user end. For RG6 18ga stranded that is about 0.6V loss at 250mA and
therefore doable,

I would run two cables if there was a way to make it increase signal
strength.

Forget it.

* Getting anymore from the cable company is not an option.
* *Any ideas to get a better signal?
* * * * * * * * Mikek


Use a 15dB gain drop amp with power inserter, but that's just a guess.
Would help if you actually knew signal levels like what the receiver
requires for optimum reception and what the cable co sources. Putting
the amplifier at source gives you a typical system noise figure of
3dB, but putting it at your end limits your NF to 10dB minimum from
the start.