On Mon, 27 Apr 2020 19:01:51 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

On 27/04/2020 15:34, T i m wrote:

Funnily enough I was faced with just this scenario a while back,
helping a family friend. Traced a lost TV signal back to a loft
mounted amp and (of course) the best quality / VFM replacement we
could get easily had F Type connectors.

Why doesn't everyone fitting these things put them where you can work
on them easily? ;-(

Probably a combination of wanting to amplify the lowest noise signal,
and that normally favours being close to the aerial, and not wanting to
have to double back loads of drop wires (and so add masses of extra
cable length to the system).

So "above" where you would logically want to start splitting the feeds
off makes sense.

Sure, but what I am talking about here is bringing the aerial cable
(some distance) in from a stack at the end of a roof (big old house,
so already 20m or so) to a point where it's on the wrong side of
structure, meaning you can't-quite-get-it by standing on ladders in
the loft hatch. You had to climb in (only 1m or so) and sit cramped up
in the small loft space, just to get to the amplifier? ;-(

There were nearly as many cables going South as there were going North
so it wasn't (in this particular case) a matter of biasing the unit to
keep most the cable-runs as short as possible.

The point was, given how long most of the runs were, the extra 1m
wouldn't have made any difference to the signal but would have made it
far easier to work on.

Now it could have been that initially there was no distribution amp
and it was fitted later, in the best point possible *then*, but I
think I would have extended part of it (the outlet) at the time and
then worked from there.

My amp is in our bedroom cupboard because the aerial is in the loft.
Nice an easy to get at. ;-)

Cheers, T i m