"DoN. Nichols" wrote in message
...
On 2013-01-12, Harold & Susan Vordos wrote:
Hey guys!
We live in an area with little television reception. I've avoided paying
for a dish, as I don't watch all that much TV. We get a PBS station,
along
with one of the Fox network stations. Good enough for us, as we get news
and
some interesting scientific shows.

Ok, now my question. I have a splitter in a room that is not heated.
As
weather turned colder, I started getting a lot of blue screen on the TV.
The colder it got, the worse the reception, until it got to the point
where
the TV was off more than it was on. About a week ago, I lit the
boiler
in the room where the splitter resides. Suddenly, great reception.
When
the room cooled off, after turning off the boiler, it was back to blue
screen once again. Heated the splitter and got service back. When it
cooled down, it was, once again, lost. Replaced the old splitter with
a
new one, which improved reception, but did not eliminate the problem.
Finally hung a small light bulb near the splitter, which I figured would
keep it warm. Sure enough, we now have great (albeit limited) reception
once again.

Anyone care to offer a reason for poor performance when a splitter cools
off
too much? I would suggest that it was in the 40 degree range, not
freezing. Why would it cooling off make a difference? I fully
expected
that it wouldn't be temperature sensitive.

The connectors used for cable TV -- and the splitters -- are far
from the best. They are as cheap as they can be made -- even using the
center conductor of the cable as the center pin of the connector.

The temperature may be affecting the grip of the female
connector's center pin on the coax cable center conductor. A bit of
careful bending of the grip fingers (if you can get in to do it) might
improve the grip. As would treating with a good contact cleaner. Or --
just unscrew the ring, and pull the cable out and push it in multiple
times to clean any oxide off the center conductor. (Are you using coax
down from the antenna, or is this a splitter for the old 300 Ohm ribbon
antenna cable?)

Coax all the way.


Or -- the thermal stresses might be opening a connection inside
the splitter. They also are made as cheaply as possible.

That was my original thought. Bought a new splitter, which improved
performance, but did not eliminate the problem. The original splitter was
purchased back in the early 80's.


Out of curiosity -- did you try exchanging the output feeds to
see whether it made things better?

Why the splitter anyway? Feeding the antenna to two different
locations in the house -- or to the TV and a VCR?

We feed two different (and identical) TV sets. Both behave the same way,
although not necessarily in lock-step. It's clearly the loss of signal to
each set, and, in our case, most likely due to weak signal to begin with, as
we're a good distance away from the transmitter (tower). When the switch
to digital came along, we lost many stations. Before the change, we could
get both Portland Oregon and Seattle stations (although not well). We lost
all of the Portland stations and almost all of the Seattle stations with the
change.


Good Luck,
DoN.


Thanks, Don, and all the others that provided an opinion. I have yet to
explore further, as I am short of time right now. The light bulb has
provided excellent service---the problem, what ever it may be, has been
temporarily addressed, so we're happy for the moment, but I hope to discover
which of these things are responsible. I'll report if I happen to solve
the mystery.

Amazing. This group is exceedingly knowledgeable. Too damned bad it doesn't
stick to productive things instead of all the bad-mouthing it does with
trolls and those who don't have a life.

Again, thanks to all. Your comments are appreciated.

Harold