Coax Cable

[HydroSqueegee]

Does it sometimes permanently forget to record shows, as in they magically just drop off every once in a while? My SA box did that. My new Motorola FIOS box has been wonderful tho, although it gets VERY hot.

it doesnt forget to record them. It has the recording in the listing, but it will just be a black picture for the entire length or will say the program is temporarily unavailable.

 

[theacoustician]

It is best to not use an amp as much as possible as amps amplify everything, including the noise levels.

You lose 6-10 dB for every passive split and 3dB for every termination, and 5db (@5 Mhz) to 21dB (@900MHz) for every 100m. Those losses add up and they add up especially quick if your terminations aren't done properly. Not using an amp after 3-4 splits I'd only have to say caveat emptor.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

You lose 6-10 dB for every passive split and 3dB for every termination, and 5db (@5 Mhz) to 21dB (@900MHz) for every 100m. Those losses add up and they add up especially quick if your terminations aren't done properly. Not using an amp after 3-4 splits I'd only have to say caveat emptor.

so tell me about the splits. A 2 way splitter produces less loss than a 3 way? how does this work? and how does termination work with coax? I figured it went from the outside box, to whatever device you hoot it up to and you're done.

 

[Josh]

You were trying to cram dual shield connectors on a quad shield cable.

Actually I was using quad-shield connectors. Still a bitch to put them on. Plus with the extra shielding, if it gets to the center conductor, it grounds out.

Cable ground blocks are usually not installed right, they used copper stakes, or missing entirely.

Not quite sure what this has to do with the conversation, but in all of the installs in my area, Adelphia grounds the incoming cable from the street to the house ground, as per NEC regs. But yeah, grounding is important. If the cable company fails to ground properly, they can be held responsible. A simple phone call to the local cable office saying you think you might have a bad ground usually clears that up.

The closer you put the modem to the demark, the better.

Demark (or rather Demarc) is a telecom term, not a cable company term.

 

[theacoustician]

Demark (or rather Demarc) is a telecom term, not a cable company term.

There isn't really a difference anymore. Comcast even has their main feed here listed on the Visio diagram as demark. I know what you're saying about demarc since its an abbrivation, but that's how all the Comcast dudes label it and how all the phone people here label it, so I've just gotten used to it.

 

[theacoustician]

so tell me about the splits. A 2 way splitter produces less loss than a 3 way? how does this work? and how does termination work with coax? I figured it went from the outside box, to whatever device you hoot it up to and you're done.

A passive split is just that, it takes 1 signal and splits it. Kirchhoff's Law applies here just like any other parallel circuit. If that means nothing to you, then just know that the two resulting lines have less signal than the original line. If you split it enough, you end up not having enough signal to watch TV. Higher frequency attenuates faster than lower frequency, so that why very often people have their higher number channels get fuzzy when the lower ones look fine.

Terminating coax means putting the F-connector on it, in this case. That's the thing you screw into the back of the TV.