On Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 9:03:28 AM UTC-5, micky wrote:
Reception at a remote TV** has degraded and I thought maybe a splitter
connection had gotten bad, even though they are all indoors.
No electronics stores in town anymore. Home Depot has normal ones but
Google came up with
https://www.walmart.com/ip/2-Way-Coa...sing/892650362
And my question is, 90db!!! I'd think it was a typo, but there's a
picture of it and it says it in big letters. This is loss, right?
Typical loss is 3.5db. With 90db loss, there's be almost nothing left.
Is this meant to fool suckers? Even if this were meant to fool suckers,
would anyone even make a splitter with 90db loss? (It also says 2.4GHz)
That is return loss or isolation between the output ports, not the insertion loss.
(It also says this, twice in a row: "With this splitter being capable of
frequencies up to 2GHz, there's no need to worry about signal loss or
degradation of runs up to 100 ft.")
2GHZ rating is for Sat TV use between the antenna and the receivers.
Also, I've thought about replacing the first amplifier too. It seems to
be warmer than it used to be. IIRC it used to be just barely warm and
now it's warm to the touch. Similar looking amps claim 20db and 36db
and unspecified. Because of the splitter above, I'm suspicious that
36db might be phony and actually no more than 20db. I can find the
links if you want them.
36 dB would overdrive your TVs unless the feed is really weak. You have a worst case loss of 10.5 dB in the splitters. The coaxial cable loss depends on the type, the length and the quality.
|--- 4 tvs in a row with an amplifier after the 2nd
DVDR-[**]-|
|--- 2 tvs in a row. Good reception at all 6 tv's except the
2nd one in this string.
Swap the two outputs of the two way splitter and see if the same set sfill has problems, or if at moved to he other TV.
**a splitter to 1 tv and an amp to all the others.
This had all been working fine for over 30 years. The problem tv
started giving problems a few years ago. Changing the tv didn't help.
(All but one are 14" CRT tvs.)
Back to splitters,
1) Any reason to buy a gold-plated splitter? Outdoor use?
2) Besides the extra $2 charge, is there any reason to NOT buy a
power-passing splitter if I'm not sending any power?
Gold plating never tested better in the lab, and you don't need power passing for this application.