On Feb 8, 2:18*pm, amdx wrote:
On 2/8/2012 3:03 PM, Robert Macy wrote:





On Feb 8, 12:00 pm, *wrote:
Hi All,
I'm on a boat, about 170ft from the utility post.
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 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?
I would run two cables if there was a way to make it increase signal
strength.
* *Getting anymore from the cable company is not an option.
* * Any ideas to get a better signal?
* * * * * * * * *Mikek

PS.

* *When the signal fails it seems channel 41 is ok and above 42 it breaks up.
Curious to know if there is an unusual frequency jump between those two
digital channels.

see URL:
http://www.dbsinstall.com/broadcast/vhf_uhf_freq_list.asp

* *That's helpful. however, I do receive channels up to 484!
Dang, just noticed "Lesbo Euro Trash: Big Boobs" is on 502, but, it's
pay per view. :-)

41 is 324 - 330MHz and 42 is 330-336 MHz
cables attenuate more at higher frequency.

* I thought there might be a bigger jump between 41 and 42
because when 42 was pixelating 41 was always perfect.

By ALL means, if you're going to add an amplifier, add it at the
source location, not at the receiver location
Cheap, but good, ones are available from microcircuits. Can you buy a
line driver from your CATV company?

I suspect the 'better' cable is only marginally better. What is the
EXACT cable you're using? what is its attenuation per foot per MHz?
You can buy extremely low loss coax, but you may have to send in your
first born. *Go to a local NRTL [EMC Test Lab] and see if they can
(are willing to) order a length for you.

* *I think I'll try the amp, before spending for better cable.

I think I just found a work around, The station I wanted, 42
is repeated on 428 in HD and it doesn't pixelate when 42 does.
* The pixelating problem is rare, only a spall percentage of the time,
but very annoying. Ah, the wonderful world if Digital TV.
* * * * * * * * *Mikek- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

FWIW, our local cable system just converterd to digital and after
installing the cable boxes I noticed that there were usually about 4-6
drop-outs between 6PM and 11PM. I suspected that the problem was at
their end but they sent out a tech who re-terminated the cables at the
demarcation box outside then changed that splitter from 3 output to 2
output. Inside he trimmed about 2m of excess cable from the wall jack
[inside the wall space] and re-terminated that and installed a new
jumper from there to a splitter [replaced] feeding the two cable
boxes, one feeding the TV the other the VCR. He then measured the
levels and the incoming signal was -10dB [just on nominal] and the
back feed level [at the cable office] was -15dB, again just on
nominal. He said that performance was good down to at least -20dB
incoming. My run is about the same length as yours from the
distribution pedistal and is of lower performance that RG-6.
The number of drop-outs is perhaps slightly less, but a new PVR seems
to handle the drop-outs much better than the cable boxes did so they
are less noticable than before. I have also noted that one particular
commercial has a drop-out in it and it is the same everytime it is
run, again pointing to the problem being at their end.

Neil S