Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:08:40 -0800, "Sal" wrote:


"tom" wrote in message
.net...

On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:52:31 -0800, The_Giant_Rat_of_Sumatra
wrote:



nuclear snippage


tom
K0TAR



I plonked the guy days ago. It would be so-o-o-o great if people quoted him
back little or none. I have no objection to appropriate profanity (and have
been known to howl the unprintable on occasion, myself.) But when overused
to no good end, ****/****ing,****er/****ed-up/****wad get tedious.

"Sal"

When the foo ****s...

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

Sal wrote:

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
m...

snip

Still easier than having to use blasting caps to find the ends of a
broken conduit under the finished concrete floor in a new RADAR site.
An old fish tape & blasting cap pushed as far as it would go and
BOOM!!!. Then repeat for the other end. Then they used a jackhammer to
break out the concrete between the huge floor divots to install new
conduit. The electrical contractor had failed to tie the conduit to the
rebar & wire mesh before the pour. :)

Good story. It brought to mind a promotional video I saw for a company that
had a process called explosive bonding (of dissimilar metals). They must
have been too cheap to rent lights, so they did the demo outside on an old
wooden table. It was two guys in overalls and, I swear, they could have
retitled it "Gomer and Bubba Find Some Dynamite" and nobody would have
noticed.


No one wants to let rednecks with dynamite indoors. ;-)


--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Joerg wrote:
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.
Looks like the cable guys screwed up.
In your opinion.
If their company cable box doesn't deliver a useful and reliable signal
I call that screwed up. One pays for a service and expects to either get
it delivered as promised or money back.

... If they are delivering the level called for in
their franchise, they didn't screw up. It has always been up to the
customer to pay for or provide extra equipment for non standard
installs.

Mike's install does not sound non-standard. 170ft cable drop towards
premises which is fairly normal, plus the cable company's set-top box.

Grow up. That is an excessive length drop. A standard drop is under
100 feet. You think you know everything, and that the world has to live
by your rules. You don't, and it doesn't. ...
http://www.starvision.tv/lineup_res.htm

Quote "Maximum Drop Length 300 Feet"

Now that's what I call good service.

... I'll bet you've never even
seen a CATV franchise, or the dozen of pages of specifications agreed to
by both the CATV company and the local government. The CATV company
isn't a Santa Clause machine, and local governments know why there are
limits to the service provided. If there were't, no one could afford to
build or operate a CATV system. You've never designed a headend, or a
physical plant If they build to supply higher port levels, it has to
start at the headend, and requires closer spaced trunk amplifers. The
system noise goes up from all of the cascaded amplifers, and the
equipment runs hotter, withj a very reduced service life. When you can
design an RF distribution system of more than 500 MHz bandwidth and has
over 10,000 output ports, with the gain stabilized to a couple dBmv 20
miles from the headend and over a range from sub zero F to + 100 F then
you can tell me I'm wrong.

One headend I designed and built was only off by .1 dBmv at the test
port on the first trunk amp which was a half mile from the head end. If
you can do better than that, I'll listen to you and your opinions

See above. Obviously others can. And yes, I have designed RF broadband
power amps. Lots of them. Not just lashing up boxes but the actual
transistor level circuitry including layout guidance for the nasty stuff.

Fact is, if a cable company isn't competent to do a 170ft drop they
should decline the job. Otherwise it is a screw-up, plain and simple. In
our area they'd lose their shirts to the satellite guys because there
are many houses like ours where there is no reasonable way to get from
the street to the house with a 100ft limit. We have around 200ft that's
still there from the early 90's and the previous owner said cable TV
worked just fine for them. We are not subscribed because TV ain't that
important to us.


Yawn. You constantly harp about having to meet specs in medical, but
whine like a drunken jackass when other businesses have to meet their
specs. yes, they could design the sytems to 300 feet or more, but the
cost to every customer on the system would go up.


In medical I tend to push the envelope and so do the standards
committees. Sometimes based on what we do. I designed all my cardiac
stuff defibrillator-proof, always, although it was not the law yet. Then
they made it law, because it makes sense.

Believe it or not but I like to have to meet specs in medical because
they protect people. Including you.


... Would you like to pay
an extra 20% to 30% just so a very few locations can get better
service?


Out here we do not pay extra. Our cable companies out tend do use modern
technology, not cheap stuff from the 70's. A cable company that isn't
competent enough to do more than a measly 100ft would lose their
franchise rather quickly.


Oh, that's right. You're too cheap to even have cable TV.


Read more carefully. I said TV doesn't matter to us, it is not about cost.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

On Feb 10, 11:38*am, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:17:03 -0800 (PST), JIMMIE

wrote:
Jeff, I installed TVRO systems for several years and used a lot of F
connectors. Suprisingly the ones I found that worked best were the
ultra cheap ones that only took a pair of pliers to fasten *These were
the ones with the separate crimp rings. Used with some good quality
heat shrink tubing this eliminated most of the problems you mention. I
dont know why these connectors went away, my only guess is *that
someone wasn't making enough money on them.

Jimmie

Yech...

Please try this test. *Insert such a crimp type F connector and cable
into some useless piece of equipment with a type F jack. *Pull on the
cable hard. *In my experience, it doesn't take much to make the cable
and connector part ways. *Repeat with a screw on connector. *Now,
repeat the experiment using a properly assembled compression type F
connector and cable. *It takes considerably more brute force to break
the connection. *I think the official minimum pull test is 55 lbs, but
I'm too lazy to Google for it now.

Hiding the workmanship under shrink tube is not very functional. *It
will have little effect on the pull test.

Most of the cable leakage problems I've seen (and found) were due to
crimp type F connectors coming apart or badly crimped. *That includes
both the hex shaped crimp, and ones held together with a crimped ring.

Bad:
http://www.fconnector.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/F-Connector2.jpg

Worse:
http://www.showmecables.com/images/catalog/product/F-connector-RG59.j...

Good:
http://images.lowes.com/product/converted/783250/783250926510lg.jpg

--
Jeff Liebermann * *
150 Felker St #D * *http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann * * AE6KS * *831-336-255

Sorry Jeff but I never used my connectors to support my cables. You
may be right but completely irrelevant to me. To me F connector and
good connection shouldn't even be used in the same sentence. They are
what that are, cheap connectors at best that uses the center conductor
of the cable for a contact. Now that is Yech. Heat shrink has nothing
to do with the pull test or hiding poor workmanship but it does help
keep corrosion down which is the biggest problem with F connectors.
Ive never seen one pull apart except in the shoddiest of
installations. One of the best things I have found to insure you
maintain a good connection is to apply something like DeOxit to the
connectors when you assemble them. Best done while all the parts are
new.

Jimmie

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

On Feb 10, 11:38*am, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:17:03 -0800 (PST), JIMMIE

wrote:
Jeff, I installed TVRO systems for several years and used a lot of F
connectors. Suprisingly the ones I found that worked best were the
ultra cheap ones that only took a pair of pliers to fasten *These were
the ones with the separate crimp rings. Used with some good quality
heat shrink tubing this eliminated most of the problems you mention. I
dont know why these connectors went away, my only guess is *that
someone wasn't making enough money on them.

Jimmie

Yech...

Please try this test. *Insert such a crimp type F connector and cable
into some useless piece of equipment with a type F jack. *Pull on the
cable hard. *In my experience, it doesn't take much to make the cable
and connector part ways. *Repeat with a screw on connector. *Now,
repeat the experiment using a properly assembled compression type F
connector and cable. *It takes considerably more brute force to break
the connection. *I think the official minimum pull test is 55 lbs, but
I'm too lazy to Google for it now.

Hiding the workmanship under shrink tube is not very functional. *It
will have little effect on the pull test.

Most of the cable leakage problems I've seen (and found) were due to
crimp type F connectors coming apart or badly crimped. *That includes
both the hex shaped crimp, and ones held together with a crimped ring.

Bad:
http://www.fconnector.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/F-Connector2.jpg

Worse:
http://www.showmecables.com/images/catalog/product/F-connector-RG59.j...

Good:
http://images.lowes.com/product/converted/783250/783250926510lg.jpg

--
Jeff Liebermann * *
150 Felker St #D * *http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann * * AE6KS * *831-336-2558

You are correct that the problem is in the hex crimp and part of this
is because they started making the crimp made on to the connector. The
other part is that you have to have a special tool to crimp them. All
the pictures that you showed are require a special crimp tool. If
these tools are worn or dont fit the particular plug/ cable
combination you will get a bad crimp. The old style that is probably
40 years old now that you could crimp the little ring with a pair of
pliers worked the best. Unfortunately you can no longer get them,
well I do have a few.

Jimmie

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:35:37 -0800, The_Giant_Rat_of_Sumatra
wrote:

On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:41:38 -0800, John Larkin
wrote:


Why are you so angry? You've been cursing and ranting here all day,
flailing at everyone.

This isn't healthy. All that anger will wreck your immune system and
make you old fast. You'll stroke out eventually, and not have much fun
meanwhile. Really.


Why do you not refrain from attacking me?

Oh that's right... that is your true goal. FOAD, John Larkin.

OK, live the live of your choice. Mean, angry, and short.


--

John Larkin, President Highland Technology Inc
www.highlandtechnology.com jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com

Precision electronic instrumentation
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators
Custom timing and laser controllers
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links
VME analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer
Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

In message
,
JIMMIE writes
On Feb 10, 11:38*am, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:17:03 -0800 (PST), JIMMIE

wrote:
Jeff, I installed TVRO systems for several years and used a lot of F
connectors. Suprisingly the ones I found that worked best were the
ultra cheap ones that only took a pair of pliers to fasten *These were
the ones with the separate crimp rings. Used with some good quality
heat shrink tubing this eliminated most of the problems you mention. I
dont know why these connectors went away, my only guess is *that
someone wasn't making enough money on them.

Jimmie

Yech...

Please try this test. *Insert such a crimp type F connector and cable
into some useless piece of equipment with a type F jack. *Pull on the
cable hard. *In my experience, it doesn't take much to make the cable
and connector part ways. *Repeat with a screw on connector. *Now,
repeat the experiment using a properly assembled compression type F
connector and cable. *It takes considerably more brute force to break
the connection. *I think the official minimum pull test is 55 lbs, but
I'm too lazy to Google for it now.

Hiding the workmanship under shrink tube is not very functional. *It
will have little effect on the pull test.

Most of the cable leakage problems I've seen (and found) were due to
crimp type F connectors coming apart or badly crimped. *That includes
both the hex shaped crimp, and ones held together with a crimped ring.

Bad:
http://www.fconnector.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/F-Connector2.jpg

Worse:
http://www.showmecables.com/images/catalog/product/F-connector-RG59.j...

Good:
http://images.lowes.com/product/converted/783250/783250926510lg.jpg

--
Jeff Liebermann * *
150 Felker St #D * *http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann * * AE6KS * *831-336-255

Sorry Jeff but I never used my connectors to support my cables. You
may be right but completely irrelevant to me. To me F connector and
good connection shouldn't even be used in the same sentence. They are
what that are, cheap connectors at best that uses the center conductor
of the cable for a contact. Now that is Yech. Heat shrink has nothing
to do with the pull test or hiding poor workmanship but it does help
keep corrosion down which is the biggest problem with F connectors.
Ive never seen one pull apart except in the shoddiest of
installations. One of the best things I have found to insure you
maintain a good connection is to apply something like DeOxit to the
connectors when you assemble them. Best done while all the parts are
new.

There little wrong with good quality F-connectors. They are generally
good enough for what they were intended for. Problems are usually down
to who installs them, and how.

For personal outdoor use, I always give any connectors a squirt of WD40
- both during and after installation. [I guess DeOxit would be similar
or better.] After cleaning off most of the WD40, I then seal with
self-amalgamating tape. Obviously, heatshrink would be better, but for
me, is usually less convenient.

Mechanically, even screw-on Fs can be hard to dislodge, provided just
the right amount of braid is trapped under the screw thread. However, I
suppose that sometimes they might not provide the ultimate in screening.

In the UK, in the large CATV networks, crimped connectors are well and
truly a thing of the past. Anyone using them (even the good ones) would
be liable to be hung, drawn and quartered, and then severely punished.

The standard connector is of the 'Snap and Seal' type (and similar). In
themselves, these are pretty well watertight, and the screening is
excellent. It should be almost impossible to pull one off the cable.

However, it is unusual for F-connections to appear naked in the open
air. The final RF distribution to the home is invariably from a street
cabinet which houses an optical node or an RF distribution / line
extender amplifier feeding a bank of taps/splitters. The 'traditional'
cascade of in-line taps has not been used for a very long time. Under
these relatively benign conditions, the F-connectors probably suffer
much less from corrosion than those used on taps hanging on aerial
messenger wires, USA-style. Nevertheless, there are various purpose-made
short 'chunky' rubber sleeves which can be installed first on the tap
ports before the cable connectors are screwed on. These seal the screw
threads. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a bit of WD40 used
but I never managed to drum up much enthusiasm for this as an approved
practice.
--
Ian

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

"The_Giant_Rat_of_Sumatra" wrote in message
...

On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:52:11 -0600, tom wrote:

On 2/10/2012 8:32 PM, Wayne wrote:

He really needs to create a new file from which to cut and paste. Like
most comedians', his jokes get stale after awhile.

-- VWW, K6EVE
-
But you must admit that this normally quiet newsgroup finally has some
activity. Who knows, this could take on the characteristics of the GFW.
--Wayne W5GIE

"GFW=Great Fractal Wars"

Unfortunately the traffic has nothing to do with antennas.

Things dried up here around 6 months ago. I suspect the people with
brains and stories, and some of us remember who they are, are no longer
with us or finally bailed due to the noise.


I was playing with Moonrakers way back in the early seventies.
-
Moonrakers? LOL. Ok now we have you calibrated. I suppose Giant Rat of
Sumatra was your "call sign".

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:51:08 -0800, Joerg
wrote:


Believe it or not but I like to have to meet specs in medical because
they protect people. Including you.

More than a bit full of yourself.

Engineers follow standards because standards are developed by engineers
to give us all uniformity where it is needed.

You claiming it is due to your special care for us is disingenuous.

You discounting standards in other areas is casual lameness, and it
pretty much defines you,and sullies all other claimed accomplishments.

Increasing Cable TV signal strength
 

The_Giant_Rat_of_Sumatra wrote:
On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:51:08 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

Believe it or not but I like to have to meet specs in medical because
they protect people. Including you.

More than a bit full of yourself.

Engineers follow standards because standards are developed by engineers
to give us all uniformity where it is needed.

You claiming it is due to your special care for us is disingenuous.


No. I know for a fact that paddles were applied while a system of ours
was connected. The doc should have first pulled the plug as the
procedure calls for, but didn't. The witnessing engineer almost froze
but the patient interface held. If it hadn't someone would most likely
have died. I had designed it defibrillator-proof even though the
standard did not (yet) require this.


You discounting standards in other areas is casual lameness, ...


Like where? And what particular standard? Quote, please.

[...]

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/