Running coaxial cable under a house

[HeroOfPellinor]

Cliff's notes.

-- Cable guy ran cable to three rooms
-- I cut cable end off in one room to run sprinkler timer wires
-- Bought new coaxial cable at Lowes, drilled new hole, and connected the the main splitter under the house
-- Don't get a signal with my PCI TV Tuner
-- Cable guy now stalking me and trying to ruin my life....name tag read "C Douglas"

Does anybody know if that cable they run under the house is different than regular cable?

The explanation for my behavior. He could only get the cable run to one side of this room and I wanted it on the other, so I was going to have to cut it anyway.

 

[olds]

Bad parody thread? It makes no sense.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Bad parody thread? It makes no sense.

Fine. Ignore everything but the bolded sentence.


My sense of humor is just different.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

no

 

[aplefka]

No it's not. I could help you out as I'm doing the same thing, just through our attic instead.

 

[Mokmo418]

Maybe there's one of those filters hidden somewhere
Had one near my cable box... found it right before tech support was to send someone when i switched to digital...

 

[illustri]

im assuming you dont have digital cable service

if signals weak boost it

 

[dartworth]

use Digicon compression fittings and RG6 coax...

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: illustri
im assuming you dont have digital cable service

if signals weak boost it

I do have digital cable, but they said any room where there's no digital receiver can pick up the signal with a TV without needing a cable box.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Bad parody thread? It makes no sense.

Fine. Ignore everything but the bolded sentence.


My sense of humor is just different.

Here is where you lost me:

-- I cut cable end off in one room to run sprinkler timer wires

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: illustri
im assuming you dont have digital cable service

if signals weak boost it

I do have digital cable, but they said any room where there's no digital receiver can pick up the signal with a TV without needing a cable box.

You should be able to put the coax into the antenna in on either your tv/vcr/dvd player/modulator without needing a box. Unless there's some kind of special coax they use for digital cable that's wider than regular RG-59 or RG6.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Bad parody thread? It makes no sense.

Fine. Ignore everything but the bolded sentence.


My sense of humor is just different.

Here is where you lost me:

-- I cut cable end off in one room to run sprinkler timer wires

Rather than drill a new hole along that wall, I wanted to use the one the cable line was going through and drill a hole on the opposite wall for the cable line.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: illustri
im assuming you dont have digital cable service

if signals weak boost it

I do have digital cable, but they said any room where there's no digital receiver can pick up the signal with a TV without needing a cable box.

You should be able to put the coax into the antenna in on either your tv/vcr/dvd player/modulator without needing a box. Unless there's some kind of special coax they use for digital cable that's wider than regular RG-59 or RG6.

Crap. Then something else must be wrong, because I'm getting no signal.

 

[TechnoKid]

let me get this straight, under the house, you have a three way splitter feeding three rooms. This splitter is hooked up outside to the main cable line. This is a regular type of F-coxial splitter, not a security type that needs special connector ends.

So, you disconnected one of the legs from the splitter and then reran that line to the other side of the same room it was going to.

Unless you terminated/crimped the ends of the coaxial cable incorrectly, you should get a signal.

Did you use RG6 to run it to the other side? The line going to the splitter from teh outside main line should be either RG6QS or RG11.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: TechnoKid
let me get this straight, under the house, you have a three way splitter feeding three rooms. This splitter is hooked up outside to the main cable line. This is a regular type of F-coxial splitter, not a security type that needs special connector ends.

So, you disconnected one of the legs from the splitter and then reran that line to the other side of the same room it was going to.

Unless you terminated/crimped the ends of the coaxial cable incorrectly, you should get a signal.

Did you use RG6 to run it to the other side? The line going to the splitter from teh outside main line should be either RG6QS or RG11.

I'll double check. Thanks for the input though. And, yeah, you got it right.

 

[Howard]

I'm thinking there should be a few specs underground cable should meet...

 

[ScottMac]

You probably shorted the connector when you put it on. If you're not watching closely ... it's easy enough of one (or more) of the braid wires to wrap around the center conductor.

Re-connectorize and check it again.

While you're under there, change that three-way splitter to a four-way with a terminator on the unused split.

Because of the way they get a "three way split" it has more loss and /or less isolation than a four-way splitter.

Good Luck

Scott

 

[Apple Juice]

If you added a splitter, see what freq it allows. Some cutoff at regular broadcast frequencies.

 

[TechnoKid]

Originally posted by: ScottMac
You probably shorted the connector when you put it on. If you're not watching closely ... it's easy enough of one (or more) of the braid wires to wrap around the center conductor.

Re-connectorize and check it again.

While you're under there, change that three-way splitter to a four-way with a terminator on the unused split.

Because of the way they get a "three way split" it has more loss and /or less isolation than a four-way splitter.

Good Luck

Scott

Not entirely true about the three ways versus the four ways.

The best 4 way splitters I know of have about -7.0db of loss per leg. These are from Channel Vision. Pico makes good splitters as well.

A good balanced 3 way splitter has a loss of about -6db per leg; an unbalanced 3 way usually has two -7.4 legs and one -3.5 leg.