In article ,
"Jon" wrote:

I am having persistent problems with coaxial cable connectivity with my
cable modem.

It has to go through a splitter. I thought I got the best when I bought a
broadband splitter fro Radio Shack for $20.00, but it is no better than the
cheap model I have on it now.

Typically I disconnect the cable, coat the wire with DeOxit and it works
again for a little while. Then in a few days it goes offline again.

I want to solder the son of a bitch and be finished with it for good. I can
solder all the center wires together, but what do I do about the shields?
(the screw-on conductor part). How do I connect all the shields together?

I don't think there's anything out there, but I thought I'd ask. My
solution is to cut the damned Radio Shack splitter apart with a Dremel tool
and go from there. I can strip the coax center wires back 3" and see if I
can stick them through far enough to solder them together.

F connectors are not bad *provided they are properly installed on the
proper type of cable*. I wouldn't be surprised if the problem isn't just
marginal signal levels. Like all things "digital", the system will
transition from working fine to not working at all with a level change
of half a dB or less. That can happen just from the backbone cable going
from full sun during the day to cooling off after dark. Especially if
your system was set up without a splitter, or a while ago, losses may
have increased over time.

Best solution is to get a cable company tech out to your house with a
tool to measure the level, including the splitter loss.

The tech can adjust the attenuator that connects your drop to the
backbone cable (it's probably on the pole), and things will be fine
again.

If you can do a test by taking that splitter out of the circuit, and the
CM works fine, then signal level is the culprit for sure.

Isaac