Here's the scenario...

Lived at current address for about 10 years.
Previous owner installed a Wickes doobrey (in loft) that fed UHF signal
to 3 bedrooms plus UHF and FM signal to downstairs lounge.
Whilst having Sky digital installed some 4-5 years ago, fitters said
that, for £90 cash, they could re-jig the setup to allow all 3
bedrooms to receive same satellite signal as currently being received
by the decoder in the lounge and also pick up the signal from the DVD
that was also in the lounge, as well as receiving the usual terrestrial
channels. This was all possible by using existing cabling and without
the need to run new wires.

At the time, I left them to it and, as it all worked perfectly, had no
reason to study what they'd done.

Now, however, I am converting the garage into a playroom for the kids
and the co-ax cables for the above system will be sealed away when the
room gets plastered.

As TV, sky and DVD signals would be of great use in this room, I
obviously wanted to tap into the feed and split the signal to a point
in the garage.

It appears that to achieve the above, the fitters simply installed an
amplifier in the loft in the UHF feed to the lounge. From there, they
made connections such that the UHF, sky and DVD signal were then sent
back up and distributed to the bedrooms. All signals use the same,
single co-ax cable.

In the garage, I have tapped into this multi-feed co-ax and split it
off to the TV point in that room. This works as it did before and can
still be received in the bedrooms as well as the new, additional point
in the garage.

However, I have noticed that, while all 5 terrestrial channels are
excellent signals, the signal for Sky at these points is not quite so
good!

Although it may be unorthodox for these signals to share the same
cable, I was wondering if there was any way I could boost the Sky
signal when it leaves the decoder, so that a better picture could be
obtained?

Can anybody knowledgeable in this area offer up some suggestions? Would
a secondary UHF amplifier, installed at this location, improve the sky
signal? Or is there a sky specific amp that would single out that
frequency and boost it, via standard UHF co-ax and without detriment to
the other terrestrial signals?

Sorry for the long post... I always try and keep it brief but worry
about not providing enough details!

Thanks for any help.

rgds,
Dean.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
wrote:

Here's the scenario...

Lived at current address for about 10 years.
Previous owner installed a Wickes doobrey (in loft) that fed UHF
signal to 3 bedrooms plus UHF and FM signal to downstairs lounge.
Whilst having Sky digital installed some 4-5 years ago, fitters said
that, for £90 cash, they could re-jig the setup to allow all 3
bedrooms to receive same satellite signal as currently being received
by the decoder in the lounge and also pick up the signal from the DVD
that was also in the lounge, as well as receiving the usual
terrestrial channels. This was all possible by using existing cabling
and without the need to run new wires.

At the time, I left them to it and, as it all worked perfectly, had no
reason to study what they'd done.

Now, however, I am converting the garage into a playroom for the kids
and the co-ax cables for the above system will be sealed away when the
room gets plastered.

As TV, sky and DVD signals would be of great use in this room, I
obviously wanted to tap into the feed and split the signal to a point
in the garage.

It appears that to achieve the above, the fitters simply installed an
amplifier in the loft in the UHF feed to the lounge. From there, they
made connections such that the UHF, sky and DVD signal were then sent
back up and distributed to the bedrooms. All signals use the same,
single co-ax cable.

In the garage, I have tapped into this multi-feed co-ax and split it
off to the TV point in that room. This works as it did before and can
still be received in the bedrooms as well as the new, additional point
in the garage.

However, I have noticed that, while all 5 terrestrial channels are
excellent signals, the signal for Sky at these points is not quite so
good!

Although it may be unorthodox for these signals to share the same
cable, I was wondering if there was any way I could boost the Sky
signal when it leaves the decoder, so that a better picture could be
obtained?

Can anybody knowledgeable in this area offer up some suggestions?
Would a secondary UHF amplifier, installed at this location, improve
the sky signal? Or is there a sky specific amp that would single out
that frequency and boost it, via standard UHF co-ax and without
detriment to the other terrestrial signals?

Sorry for the long post... I always try and keep it brief but worry
about not providing enough details!

Thanks for any help.

rgds,
Dean.

How many outputs has your Wickes doobrey got? If it's got a spare one, you
need to take a cable from that to your new room. If it hasn't got a spare,
you can share one of the existing outputs *providing* you use another
amplifier - don't just split it. You just need a small amplifier with one
input and two outputs.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

How would that improve the sky signal?

That's the only one that is a little poor in quality on all sets
throughout the house (apart from where the decoder is actually
located).

The sky signal is added to the feed as it comes out of the back of the
decoder. This then gets sent around the house to the other sets and I
am "breaking into" this feed at a point in the garage "before" it
reaches the other sets upstairs.

I thought I might be able to amplify the sky signal as is comes out the
back of the decoder and before it goes off to feed the upstairs.

Thanks,
Dean

On 24 Jan 2006 17:00:35 -0800, wrote:


In the garage, I have tapped into this multi-feed co-ax and split it
off to the TV point in that room. This works as it did before and can
still be received in the bedrooms as well as the new, additional point
in the garage.

You cant just "tap in" to signals that are distributed in this way.
People think its just like tapping into a lighting circuit to pick up
a feed for a new light but it isnt. You are dealing with radio
frequency signals at uhf and the proper devices need to be used for
splitting/distribution of those signals if signal quality is not to
suffer. Therfore you cannot just tee in using a y shaped splitter.



Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

so what CAN I do?

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
deano wrote:

so what CAN I do?

Well, you could start by reading what you have already been told. To save
you delving into the archives, I wrote THIS a couple of days ago:

"How many outputs has your Wickes doobrey got? If it's got a spare one, you
need to take a cable from that to your new room. If it hasn't got a spare,
you can share one of the existing outputs providing you use another
amplifier - don't just split it. You just need a small amplifier with one
input and two outputs."

THAT is what you can do!
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

In article .com, deano
wrote:

so what CAN I do?

Provide some context?


--
AJL Electronics (G6FGO) Ltd : Satellite and TV aerial systems
http://www.classicmicrocars.co.uk : http://www.ajlelectronics.co.uk

In article , Set Square
wrote:

you can share one of the existing outputs providing you use another
amplifier - don't just split it. You just need a small amplifier with one
input and two outputs."


Not quite the thing. A typical d/a has outputs of 8-10dB up. Therefore a
good splitter (3.5dB) will not even be noticed. The extra noise of another
amplifier is more likely to lead to overload.


--
AJL Electronics (G6FGO) Ltd : Satellite and TV aerial systems
http://www.classicmicrocars.co.uk : http://www.ajlelectronics.co.uk

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics) wrote:

In article , Set Square
wrote:

you can share one of the existing outputs providing you use another
amplifier - don't just split it. You just need a small amplifier
with one input and two outputs."


Not quite the thing. A typical d/a has outputs of 8-10dB up.
Therefore a good splitter (3.5dB) will not even be noticed. The extra
noise of another amplifier is more likely to lead to overload.

Well, since you're in that line of business, I have to bow to your superior
wisdom. All I can say is that I've *done* it - and it works, in my case - at
any rate.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
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Set Square...

I did read your post and appreciated your response.
My short response of "so what CAN I do?" was aimed at the rather
unhelpfull response from tarquinlinbin.

However, if YOU had fully read my original post, you would have
understood that I was not modifying cable runs, but merely had the
opportunity in the garage, to 'break into' the coax feed for the rest
of the house, once it came out of the back of the main sat decoder and
had that satellite signal added to it.

My question was if there was ANY WAY by which I could boost the sat
signal being piped through this cable, while the terrestrial signals
were fine. I do not want to start running cables as these are already
exisiting in the walls.

I have since discovered that there are specialist amps available which
would boost the higher frequency sky signal whilst leaving the lower
freq tv signals as they are.

So, try practising what you preach.

deano.

Andy, Hi.

To re-iterate my initial post...
Currently, TV and Sat signals are fed to upstairs bedrooms via standard
coax which existed when I moved in so I have no idea how good it is.
The TV signal in the bedrooms is very good although the satellite
signal is slightly poor. I am adding a 3rd point in my garage, by
breaking into the coax that feeds the bedrooms. Having done this, I
still get a good TV signal throughout, but again, the sat signal is
noisy. (It is perfect on the lounge tv, which is where the decoder is
located).
Thus, it would appear that the cable run length and cable quality, of
the standard UHF coax, which this signal gets piped through, along with
the UHF signal to the rest of the house, is adding noise to the sky
signal.

What can I therefore do, to amp this signal up and improve the
satellite picture in the garage and bedrooms, without affecting the
already perfect TV signal supplied by this same cable?

I have been studying the SatCare website and while it appears that
there may be a device which I could plug into the mains and attach to
the coax cable as it emerges from the back of the sat decoder and will
only boost the high freq sky signals while leaving the lower range tv
signals as they are, I am not quite sure which product to buy and/or if
I have misread the information supplied within the site's catalogue!

Does your professional knowledge and experience bring to mind a
suitable device that would satisfy my needs?

Please ask if you need more specific details/info.
TIA

deano.