[Hassan_Chop]

I have my TV antenna in my attic, coax runs down to a 6-way splitter, and, from there, more coax to 4 rooms in the house. The setup was working fine until recently; I wall mounted all of the TVs, two of which have the coax connector sticking straight out of the back. The coax cable I'm using doesn't bend enough to connect to those sets when they are mounted. To accommodate, I installed right angle connectors on them that I picked up at Lowe's. Since then, the two TV's with the right angle connectors have pretty major issues with several of the TV channels.

The signal loss from the connectors is obviously significant enough to make a difference. My cheap antenna very well could be the root of the issue, but it was sufficient prior to the installation of the connectors. What are my options for correcting the problem, and what would the cost be?

I've attached my TV Fool report. Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Calaveras]

Try this:

http://www.pasternack.com/f-male-standard-rg6-catv-connector-pe44321-p.aspx

or this:

http://www.pasternack.com/f-male-f-female-right-angle-adapter-pe9166-p.aspx

Those are quality connectors.

 

[AntAltMike]

Sometimes, those right angle connectors can loosen a little when you push the component back to the wall because the wire has a lot of leverage on them, which results in signal ingress that can interfere. Be sure the nut has been snugged with a wrench, but of course be careful, because it is possible to damage the chassis connector with wrench tightening, which is why sometimes consumer installation instructions say to never use a wrench, whereas technician instruction training instructions say to. In fact, one of the satellite service companies used to require its technicians to use a miniature torque wrench.

You can minimize the chances of inadvertently loosening the nut when you push the TV against the wall by making sure the wire is oriented to the exact final angle it will be at while you are tightening it.

You might also use a stub of more flexible wire. Unfortunately, the most flexible wire usually doesn't have foil shielding. If you do that, use old fashioned, cheap crimp on connectors with the shortest rings you can find. Old connectors with attached quarter inch crimp rings are easy to obtain, and some old crimp rings are shorter than that.

 

[Hassan_Chop]

Thanks for the advice. I'll try tightening first. I also realized that only one of my two unused splitter connections are terminated, so I'm going to get that taken care of as well and see if it helps.

Oddly, yesterday, I noticed a bit of signal issue on the TV that doesn't have a 90 degree bend on it. That was never a problems before. Is it possible that adding those could be causing the issue through the whole house, or is something else going on?

 

[bigsweezey]

Bad connectors can cause ingress(noise) in the system. Although normally it's on the lower end of the spectrum not where you would notice on channels, but weirder things have happened. We stopped using those connectors are work because we had so many issues with them.

 

[WS65711]

Thanks for the advice. I'll try tightening first. I also realized that only one of my two unused splitter connections are terminated, so I'm going to get that taken care of as well and see if it helps....

Better yet, change out the splitter for one that has only the number of splits that you are actually using . . .

 

[AntAltMike]

Bad connectors can cause ingress(noise) in the system. Although normally it's on the lower end of the spectrum not where you would notice on channels, but weirder things have happened. We stopped using those connectors are work because we had so many issues with them.

I'm surprised that you have experienced it primarily at the lower end of the spectrum, because unshielded or inadequately lengths of conductor are generally more efficient as UHF antennas. I think you may be referring to the old impulse noise that afflicted mostly low VHF channels. The disruptive ingress at UHF frequencies is most often of the same signal being received and mixed out of phase with the desired signal component.

 

[bigsweezey]

I'm surprised that you have experienced it primarily at the lower end of the spectrum, because unshielded or inadequately lengths of conductor are generally more efficient as UHF antennas. I think you may be referring to the old impulse noise that afflicted mostly low VHF channels. The disruptive ingress at UHF frequencies is mot often of the same signal being received and mixed out of phase with the desired signal component.

Yep, actually lower than that, 5-45mhz is where we primary monitor and where it causes the most issues for us. It's where our return path rides(cable). FM bands cause more of a problem now than OTA stations, not to say it doesn't happen.

 

[AntAltMike]

Yep, actually lower than that, 5-45mhz is where we primary monitor and where it causes the most issues for us. It's where our return path rides(cable). FM bands cause more of a problem now than OTA stations, not to say it doesn't happen.

That's still hard to fathom. The ingress on downstream signals only has to be enough to degrade MPEG channels that are themselves weaker than zero dBm and need an S/N of I think a little over 30dB to be reliably decoded, whereas, aren't the return signals coming out of the set top box up around 50dBm? Do those signals need an exceptionally high S/N ratio?

The FM band ingress was such a problem in analog days that most cable companies put shopping, religious or Spanish channels on 95-97. In Washington, DC, we always had killer ingress on midband 19 and 20, some of which I was told was from pagers.

 

[cichetti]

I work with iptv using HPNA (Home phone network alliance) for coax fed systems and we quickly learned that those 90 degree turn connex are no good. 6 years after we stopped using them will still occasionally find them and they worked for longer then most, but when we do find them they tend to be the cause if video degradation in the home. Not only on the unit that has the connex but any of the other units run on the same coax network.

 

[dr1394]

Back in the Radio Shack days, the really cheap right angle adapters used a spring as the center conductor. Needless to say, they didn't work very well.

Ron