Yes, just call the cable company, tell them you will change to satelite
because it doesn't work.

They will do it for nothing and very quickly.





"Jim Higgins" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:12 -0600, amdx wrote:

Hi All,
I'm on a boat, about 170ft from the utility post.
Recently our cable company switched to the wonderful world of
Digital TV. I got the new digital converter and had no picture.
I took the box back and got a second box, still no picture. So now I
suspect a weak signal and confirm that it is the cable length. The cable
company came out and gave me a better cable than I had installed. At
this point I have a picture but it is intermittent. The signal at the
utility post has 3 outputs and had a four way splitter, I suggested the
cable guy put in two 2 way splitters and give me the stronger (first) tap.
That got my signal to work almost all the time. I'd like to get the
signal to work 100% of the time.
I don't has access to electricity at the utility post, so an amp is
out. Although I could try an amp at the cable box end. Is that reasonable?
I would run two cables if there was a way to make it increase signal
strength.
Getting anymore from the cable company is not an option.
Any ideas to get a better signal?


Yes, ask the cable company to change the tap in the distribution
amplifier from (for example) -40dB to -34 dB. IOW, they can up the
signal level in the cable vs installing a lower loss cable. (You're
probably at the point where there isn't a significantly lower loss
cable available anyhow.)

Actually, first ask them to measure your signal strength at the
distribution point on your boat where their cable attaches and look
over their shoulder as they do that. They have specs and they need to
meet their specs. I had a ton of problems with Internet here until
doing that - finding they didn't meet their own specs - and when I
made them meet their own specs all was fine. They met their specs by
changing the tap.