Satellite Help

dp639

Hi,
Was wondering if someone could help me out here with a problem I have. I'll try to describe what my circumstances are.

- In a new house where I have 2 coaxial cables outlets in each room (for Sky+) and they terminate up a roof space.
- Got Sky+ installed, so the guys put the dish up, drilled through to the roof space and connected to the 2 cables that go down to the living room to the dish. So all this works well, we have Sky+ in the living room.
- Most of the other rooms get a fairly good reception with portal aerials and 3 channels is plenty in the bedrooms.
- What I want to do is get a Freesat receiver for the kitchen, as we use it a lot, and use one of the sky plus cables (maybe split it) for this (eventually I will get a 4 way LNB) but for the moment I just want to see it work in the kitchen, before spending more money. Sky+ will still work with one cable, provided you dont try to watch and record 2 different things at the same time - but its only a temporary measure.

Now here is where my problem starts.
- In the roof space the Sky cable from the dish is connected to my internal cables going to the living room using F connectors.
- All my other cables are terminated with a coax end, so I bought a F connector to coax adapter from Maplin.
- I took one of the cables from the dish and connected it to the coaxial cable leading to the kitchen.
- I have a spare Sky Box that I put in the kitchen hooked all up but not getting a satellite signal.
- I only have 1 sky card so if we want to watch TV in the kitchen it means taking it from the living room, but it is only to get the setup working then I will buy my Freesat receiver.
- The spare Sky Box works because if I bring it up to the roof space and plug in directly it works.
- The adapter that I bought works are I used it for connecting the receiver when I brought it up to the roof space.

Note: the cables are working from roof space to the other rooms, I put a video recorder at one end and TV at the other to make sure end to end they were fine.

Any ideas? anything I am overlooking? I thought it would have been straight forward. If you need any clarifications just shout or advice on what I should do differently, maybe what I am doing is very odd??

Thanks in advance.

5h4mr0(k

You can't split the cable from the sky+ box. Each sat receiver needs it's own input from the dish (the sky+ box is the equivalent of having two receivers). The receiver passes power back up the cable to the LNB on the dish.

You probably can't connect direct the second box, with the coax connector, as it probably won't allow the power to go back up the line. I'm presuming that when the sky+ was installed they removed or changed the face plate that was on the wall?

The LNB should probably have 2 free outputs on it. Get cable and F connectors and bring in two lines from the LNB into the roof space. You can then connect to the cable to the other room. Get a new face plate for the other room to change it to a coax and f-type output. It should do the job.

dp639

Cheers,
I didnt realise it needed to send the power back up. I'm only planning to use 1 of the existing cables thats used for the Sky+, just to see if it works with the second box in the kitchen. If that works then I'll put 2 extra cables to the LNB and then buy a Freesat box.

So to get it working for the moment, instead of using a Coax to F connector adapter should I put a f connector at each end of the cable running from the roof space to the kitchen (same as the Sky lads done for the living room)? then it'll allow power back up?

What is the use of the adaptors for the coax to F connector then?

Seen an F-connector splitter in Maplin, can I not split one of the existing cables? I realise the Sky+ would not work properly in the living if someone was watching something else in the kitchen.

dp639

Got myself a few F connectors, but still have problems.
Here is whats in place now.
1. I had Sky+ coming into the roof space where I have coaxial cables terminating from all the rooms. So Sky+ was hooked up to the living room.
2. I took one of the Sky+ cables and hooked it to the cable going to the kitchen, using F connectors.
3. In the kitchen I changed the coaxial socket to use an F connector, made myself a coaxial cable with F connectors (to connect from the wall socket to the Sky box).
4. Switched all on and still no signal being found.

I was thinking maybe I connected the F connectors wrong so I took my Sky box and TV up to the roof space and using one of 'my' F connector cables hooked up the box and all worked.

Is there something I have overlooked (once again) so any common problems.

I just stripped back the coaxial cable and 'screwed' on the F connector, is there crimping that would need to be done?

Many thanks in advance!

Sam Radford

Here's how to fit an 'F' plug:

http://satcure.net/tech/fconn.htm

Make sure the coax cable is double-screened with copper or aluminium foil and that it is a continuous length without any breaks or connectors that could interrupt the LNB voltage supply.

dp639

Thanks alot,
Got it working now, I just re-followed the instructions (a little slower this time) and all is working.

One final question. I am now using my 2 sky+ cables to go to different rooms now, instead of both to my Sky+, can I split 1 of these to go to my Sky+ and my other room, so that when the box is not in use in the other room my Sky+ will function as normal - using one of these?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29530&doy=11m7&C=SO&U=strat15