Dud cable?

Trevord

Connected sat dish cable to prewired cabling in my house (only 1 year old) using f pair of f connectors and a joiner. No longer getting any signal and when satfinder is connected there is no power running to it.

Can i conclude that the cables put into the house are not satellite quality and are just coaxial suitable for terrestial tv?

Really annoyed. There are three cables running down from attic to living room. Did builder expect me to want to install three rooftop aerials !!

How can I tell difference between standard coaxial and sat grade cable? There is no information printed on cable.

Rippy

Check your connections. Even if it is really nasty cable it would still carry power if the connections are ok. Make certain that not one strand of braiding is touching the inner core. but that exposed braid is folded back over the outer sheath and under the f conn.
Check Watty's excellent instructions http://homepage.eircom.net/~watty/satellite/sathowto-p8.htm

Good satellite cable (CT100) has a copper foil sheiding between the braid and the outer and the braid is copper rather than aluminium. If the cable in the house seems thin , with a very thin cental core , dense copper braiding and no foil, it is probaly RG59, intended for CCTV and similar uses but often installed by stupid or "could not give a s~hit" electricians.
Even this will still work on a very short run.
Cable is probaly RG6 which should do the job.
3 cables is good. 2 for sky + and one for terrestrial or return line. Or one for sat, one for terr ,one for return. I like to see four cables hanging out the wall( no outlet plate) when I go to do a job.
Bonus if it is CT100, but that does not happen too often.

Trevord

Thanks,

The sat cable I have is rg59 (came with lidl kit) and although others have criticised it here in the past I have to say that its carrying a signal of about 80 % (in strength and quality) on a twenty metre run (haven't cut it to size yet – maybe just as well).

I've connected this through the attic to the preinstalled cable (another 5-10 metre run I suppose) which looks like the stuff you'd get in Woodies or Atlantic Homecare - is that rg6? Its the black airspaced stuff with braiding and the aluminium foil surrounding the polyurethane seems quite light.

Signal strength drops to only 30 percent and quality only 10 ! So I need to check those f connections before I go any further ?

Zaphod

Trevord wrote:

I've connected this through the attic to the preinstalled cable (another 5-10 metre run I suppose) which looks like the stuff you'd get in Woodies or Atlantic Homecare - is that rg6? Its the black airspaced stuff with braiding and the aluminium foil surrounding the polyurethane seems quite light.

It's low grade satellite cable RG6. The 3rd type below (http://www.wrightsaerials.tv/coaxcablequalityhmdim.htm):

Type 1 and 2 are CT100. Type 4 is TV coax.

Joints in satellite cable are generally to be avoided. Joints are far worse when the joints are not properly made and you end with a short in the cable.

Signal strength drops to only 30 percent and quality only 10 ! So I need to check those f connections before I go any further ?

A signal level of 30% on a Comag means 0% signal in reality. This might be just a bad connection but if it's a short then you potentially risk blowing the tuner in the receiver if it doesn't have short-circuit protection. Check the joints and the f-connectors and make sure there is no contact between the core and the braid.

Trevord

Thanks again,

Surprised anyone ready the post as it should have said "Dud" cable rather than "Dub" Cable.

Maybe moderator can edit the original subject line.

watty

If you point the dish, or LNB on its own at a nearby house you can get 40% sometimes.

make sure dish is actually pointing at a satellite!

Trevord

Rewiring the f connectors sorted my signal problem.

Thanks to all for your assistance.