Extending satellite cables

Charlie

I have sky+ in both my living room and bedroom. The thing is, the downstairs of my house is being renovated which involes moving the kitchen wall forward. One set of sky+ cables run along this wall and I think that when the wall is moved forward its going to mean that there is not enough slack in the cables to reach the box, however the difference shouldn't be much.

Does anybody know the easiest way of extending satellite cables, I am reluctant to ring sky becuse they are usualy so useless when it comes to customer support.

Cheers in advance for any suggestions.

ShaneOC

I've extended a number of cables using a couple of F-connectors and a barrel connector. Just make sure you use proper satellite quality cable. There is no difference in signal strength/quality once the extension is not too long.

Trevord

As mentioned above make sure you don't buy ordinary coaxial if satellite isn't mentioned don't buy it.

You should be able to get the barrel and f connectors for about euro 2.50 in woodies and their Sat cable is about 90 cent a metre (sat cable is black in there I think and they have ordinary coxial in white and in brown).

Haven't come across anywhere handy that is cheaper than that.

For a guide on how to put the f connectors on the cable see

http://homepage.eircom.net/~watty/satellite/sathowto-p8.htm

Follow the instructions carefully and it should work first time. Should take no more than 10 minutes.

Tony

Will you have access to the area where the cables meet afterwards? If not I would strongly suggest re running the entire length with CT100 or equivalent.

charlie mchugh wrote:

I have sky+ in both my living room and bedroom. The thing is, the downstairs of my house is being renovated which involes moving the kitchen wall forward. One set of sky+ cables run along this wall and I think that when the wall is moved forward its going to mean that there is not enough slack in the cables to reach the box, however the difference shouldn't be much.

Does anybody know the easiest way of extending satellite cables, I am reluctant to ring sky becuse they are usualy so useless when it comes to customer support.

Cheers in advance for any suggestions.

Charlie

Tony wrote:

Will you have access to the area where the cables meet afterwards? If not I would strongly suggest re running the entire length with CT100 or equivalent.

I am not entirely sure what you mean tony. Do you mean that if I was to use connectors that they would be exposed?

Tony

charlie mchugh wrote:

I am not entirely sure what you mean tony. Do you mean that if I was to use connectors that they would be exposed?

Well i've seen lots of cases where the connector breaks down over time with air moisture so make sure your in a position to check for this if a problem develops. Have to say i'm not a fan of joining cables even when its done with f connectors

watty

Taping the whole thing with amalgamating helps. But the can go dodgy. Esp if the cable plugs are not professionally crimped with professsional connetors, not the cheapo ones with crushed ring.

Charlie

Yeah I think I will have access to where the cables are joined but after hearing what you and watty said I am unsure whether to go down this road as its a family setup and to balls it up would be egg on my face.

Is it true that when sky is installed on your chimney there is usually alot of slack in the cable on the roof, i.e they use extra lenght in case of situations where you need to extend the lenght of the sat cable.

watty

Not much.. just a loop maybe, sometimes.

Personally I leave a coil at back of receiver.

If it is properly done don't worry. Check signal level and quality BEFORE you extend cable and after, if worse then redo the connectors. If the quality/level deterioate later recheck connection as well as the other aspects