Cable length

Bozacke

Hello,

I have a Dual LNB and I want get a 2nd box and connect a 2nd TV, but it's at the furthest point away and I'll need to run about 70 ft. of cable. Is this too far, will there be any significant loss and/or I need an amplifier or something?

Thanks!!
Boz

Tony

good quality cable such as wf100 or similar will work ok provided dish is aligned correctly

Bozacke

Thanks Tony. I'll try it out. Thanks!!

Tony

My pleasure, good luck with it.

Sam Radford

70 feet is 21.5 metres. Good quality cable loses about 2.7dB every 10 metres at 1750MHz, so it will lose about 5.5dB. That's not insignificant but it should be OK provided that your signal isn't already borderline during bad weather. If it is, then you'll have to go to the next dish size.

xsiborg

im running three 20m cables between my sky+ box and my bedroom so you should be fine, although these are running inside the apartment, so its an internal setup, you dont mention whether its internal or external, but anyway-

there are two (10m) wires coming in from the sky dish into my bedroom, i used f connectors to attach the two 20m lengths of wires so i could situate the box in my living room. then i use another 20m length of wire going from the rf2 connector back into the bedroom with a sky eye to control the box from the bedroom. i also use a 15m phone line extension to brought into my living room from the hallway and split it between my router and my sky box.

as for signal/quality-

directly connected to the dish with the 10m cables:
Input 1> signal: 7/8 full bar, quality 6/8 full bar
Input 2> signal: 6/8 full bar, quality 6/8 full bar

with the 20m extension cable added on:
Input 1> signal 5/8 full bar, quality 4/8 full bar
Input 2> signal 5/8 full bar, quality 5/8 full bar.

oh and try not to bend the cable too sharply because that can cause signal/quality loss.
total cost of 100m reel of cable from electrical store was €80.
sky eye cost €40, same shop.

hope that helps!

Bozacke

Thanks for all the info!! I was planning on running the cable outside the house, but if it would make a difference I could route most of the cable through the attic. Would there be more potential loss for wires outside?

Tony

Makes no difference indoor or out. Be careful when buying the cable though thats it wf100 or similar spec, electrical wholesalers have a nasty habit of selling inferior quality cable . It should say CAI and the cable type every metre or so.

Bozacke wrote: »

Thanks for all the info!! I was planning on running the cable outside the house, but if it would make a difference I could route most of the cable through the attic. Would there be more potential loss for wires outside?

Tony

xsiborg wrote: »

sky eye cost €40, same shop.

40 just for a sky eye is expensive

xsiborg

well weather would be one consideration, wear and tear on the wire would degrade the signal, but as its probably new cable you'll be using this may not affect you as much, just explain to the guy in the shop you want it for running sky, i was told by the sky installer that i'd lose some channels running that length of cable but he may have just not wanted to do it given that it was peeing rain that day and he wanted to get away asap, lol
but yeah, i did see in my parents in laws place where the sky installer just hooked up the dish to their 20yr old coax cable running outside the house and the signal strength was 6/8 but the quality was 1/8, blocky pics and "no satellite signal" on most channels, a quick replacement job with some spanky new cable and everything was perfect again

xsiborg

Tony wrote: »

40 just for a sky eye is expensive

eesh! now you mention it i did a google to see were we talking about the same thing, boy do i feel fleeced! still though, i just picked it up at the same time as i was getting the cable for convenience sake and it was last year and a one off, geez, talk about fool me once!!

http://www.platinumhome.ie/shop/product_info.php?products_id=592

tv link for €15!

no wonder the sales guy was so nice, he just made a nice profit on an upsell! shop had big windows! lol

EDIT: actually now i come to think of it here's an interesting one-

my neighbour in the apartment beside me has his connection on the same dish as mine but his outside cable runs for a good 20m before it goes into his apartment and then runs for another 20m to the box in his living room. i know this because about a week after i got connected he came knocking on my door telling me i was interfering with his sky. so we went around to his place and i looked at the signal under services menu, and that was fine, 7/8 full, (he only had ordinary sky so one input), he had picture, but no sound on his tv. turned out all that was wrong was his scart connector had come loose on the back of his tv!

Tony

are you and your neighbour connected via a multi switch or direct to the dish?

xsiborg wrote: »

EDIT: actually now i come to think of it here's an interesting one-

my neighbour in the apartment beside me has his connection on the same dish as mine but his outside cable runs for a good 20m before it goes into his apartment and then runs for another 20m to the box in his living room. i know this because about a week after i got connected he came knocking on my door telling me i was interfering with his sky. so we went around to his place and i looked at the signal under services menu, and that was fine, 7/8 full, (he only had ordinary sky so one input), he had picture, but no sound on his tv. turned out all that was wrong was his scart connector had come loose on the back of his tv!

xsiborg

both of us directly connected to the dish tony, with a quad LNB. this was a big sticking point actually because trying to tell the guy he DIDNT actually "own" the dish and that sky did was a bit troublesome, lol
i could have told him to pee off for his arrogant behaviour but i noticed while i was there fixing that problem that he also couldnt connect to the internet using broadband, i chuckled to myself as i thought "he's hardly gonna blame me for that now aswel is he?", he didnt, but i fixed that for him aswel, dodgy extension cable and he never clicked "save settings" after he put in his username and password.

anyway, he hasnt bothered me since

Tony

Ok but from an electrical safety point of view its not a good idea to connect two apartments to the same dish as you are now electrically connected to each other and a problem could arise if you do not have a common earth. Did sky connect you this way?

xsiborg wrote: »

both of us directly connected to the dish tony, with a quad LNB. this was a big sticking point actually because trying to tell the guy he DIDNT actually "own" the dish and that sky did was a bit troublesome, lol
i could have told him to pee off for his arrogant behaviour but i noticed while i was there fixing that problem that he also couldnt connect to the internet using broadband, i chuckled to myself as i thought "he's hardly gonna blame me for that now aswel is he?", he didnt, but i fixed that for him aswel, dodgy extension cable and he never clicked "save settings" after he put in his username and password.

anyway, he hasnt bothered me since

xsiborg

i think we used different installer contractors, cant be sure about the common earth thing tbh, but i read that other thread about the risks of sharing dishes, unlikely to happen but still a risk. i might just get onto sky and ask them to give me a separate dish...

Tony

Sounds like whoever installed second took a short cut

xsiborg

well, i did post earlier:

xsiborg wrote: »

it was peeing rain that day and he wanted to get away asap, lol

Tony

Still no excuse

Rippy

[QUOTE=xsiborg;55597578 it was peeing rain that day and he wanted to get away asap, lol
[/QUOTE]

No excuse at all for compromising safety. TBH it takes longer to run the cable (neatly) than to bolt a minidish to the wall and align. Do get back on and INSIST on a new dish on safety grounds. Why take risks?