Home Automation - Concealing & Splitting coaxial in apartment
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gsd95jlb
10-01-02, 11:55 AM
I am in the process of trouble-shooting an installation which concealed coaxial within the walls and floors and split the signal to four wall jacks within my apartment in NYC (the signal is degraded to varying degrees at the four locations).
The work was done as small part of a general renovation, and we didn't sweat the details with respect to any technical specifications on the cable wiring. So I'm not certain what kind of coaxial is in the walls, but I'm pretty certain that it isn't RG-6, which is what the local cable company says is their standard. I'm planning to tackle this incrementally, hoping that complete rewiring is not necessary and that, for instance, revisiting the connections (whose quality I suspect) might solve some of our problems.
Any thoughts about this situation and answers to the following questions would be most helpful:
Does proximity to electrical and other devices within the wall affect the signal?
Does splitting the signal degrade it (we have split it three times within the apartment)?
Does the use of some existing (probably not RG-6) coaxial affect the signal?
What exactly is the difference between RG-6 and RG-59?
What would be the consequences of using RG-59?
What are the chances that the problem is with one or more connectors as opposed to the coaxial cabling itself?
The work was done as small part of a general renovation, and we didn't sweat the details with respect to any technical specifications on the cable wiring. So I'm not certain what kind of coaxial is in the walls, but I'm pretty certain that it isn't RG-6, which is what the local cable company says is their standard. I'm planning to tackle this incrementally, hoping that complete rewiring is not necessary and that, for instance, revisiting the connections (whose quality I suspect) might solve some of our problems.
Any thoughts about this situation and answers to the following questions would be most helpful:
Does proximity to electrical and other devices within the wall affect the signal?
Does splitting the signal degrade it (we have split it three times within the apartment)?
Does the use of some existing (probably not RG-6) coaxial affect the signal?
What exactly is the difference between RG-6 and RG-59?
What would be the consequences of using RG-59?
What are the chances that the problem is with one or more connectors as opposed to the coaxial cabling itself?
Zathrus
10-01-02, 01:04 PM
Proximity to power lines shouldn't be a big issue - coax is shielded (although I suspect yours doesn't have adequate shielding), and unless you're running it parallel to the power line within a couple inches or repeatedly criss crossing the cable w/ the power line it's unlikely to be a problem. Basically, try everything else first - the only solution here is to replace the cable with better stuff (RG-6 quad shield), and possibly reroute the cable runs themselves. No fun!
Splitting does degrade the signal. The signal loss per splitter should be listed on the splitter itself (as -5dB, -10dB, etc). If you lose too much signal strength from the line then you'll have all kinds of problems. Whether or not it's in range pretty much depends on your cable company - and without a signal strength tester you can't tell what it is at the end point. Adding an amp in just for the hell of it isn't a good idea - too high of signal strength can cause problems too (I had a TV that took forever to tune into cable channels... remove the amp my roommate added into the cable system and suddenly everything was fine).
RG-6 has less signal degredation with distance and is better shielded compared to RG-59. With digital satellite or digital cable it's pretty important to use RG-6, particularly for long runs. You can often get by with 59, but may have problems receiving channels (usually the higher ones, but that's not necessarily true with digital). For analog cable it's not likely to make a difference - they just don't use high enough frequencies.
The most likely cause of issues is exactly what you guess - the connectors. Make sure that they're crimped on properly and tightly, with good connections to both the line and the ground.
If the connectors don't help, figure out how much you're losing on the line from splits and consider getting an amplifier to counteract the signal loss. If possible, plug a TV in prior to any splits -- if the problem occurs before you split it, then there's nothing an amp can do! Amplifiers happily increase the power of noise as well as the signal. Garbage in, garbage out.
Splitting does degrade the signal. The signal loss per splitter should be listed on the splitter itself (as -5dB, -10dB, etc). If you lose too much signal strength from the line then you'll have all kinds of problems. Whether or not it's in range pretty much depends on your cable company - and without a signal strength tester you can't tell what it is at the end point. Adding an amp in just for the hell of it isn't a good idea - too high of signal strength can cause problems too (I had a TV that took forever to tune into cable channels... remove the amp my roommate added into the cable system and suddenly everything was fine).
RG-6 has less signal degredation with distance and is better shielded compared to RG-59. With digital satellite or digital cable it's pretty important to use RG-6, particularly for long runs. You can often get by with 59, but may have problems receiving channels (usually the higher ones, but that's not necessarily true with digital). For analog cable it's not likely to make a difference - they just don't use high enough frequencies.
The most likely cause of issues is exactly what you guess - the connectors. Make sure that they're crimped on properly and tightly, with good connections to both the line and the ground.
If the connectors don't help, figure out how much you're losing on the line from splits and consider getting an amplifier to counteract the signal loss. If possible, plug a TV in prior to any splits -- if the problem occurs before you split it, then there's nothing an amp can do! Amplifiers happily increase the power of noise as well as the signal. Garbage in, garbage out.