Coaxial Cable

UnknownSoldier

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Just looking to re-do my external aerial cable, but slightly confused. The cable will be connected up to a freeview box & therefore is there a specific type of cable i would need or will any cable do? Also the aerial is currently inside the loft space, would it be better mounted outside or will it be fine in the loft?
Thanks in advance
 
Just looking to re-do my external aerial cable, but slightly confused. The cable will be connected up to a freeview box & therefore is there a specific type of cable i would need or will any cable do? Also the aerial is currently inside the loft space, would it be better mounted outside or will it be fine in the loft?
Thanks in advance

hi mate u would be better with the aerial outside to give better reception and all u need is a male for female coxial lead. Hope this helps.
 
Any aerial will perform "better" mounted outside (if of weatherproof design:eek:) than in a loft. Whether it performs adequately in the loft depends on your proximity to the transmitter, the materials the signal will have to pass through, and any signal reflective or absorbant structures in the immediate vicinty. That is to say, if the aerial is aimed at a brick wall (gable) there will be less signal then if it were pointed at the transmitter through felt/tiles, and mounting it next to the water header tank may produce some wierd signal effects (hence maybe loss of digital channels or ghost images on analogue).

You should also consider the interim frequencies for Freeview (now until DSO) which may be out-of-group for an existing aerial (aerials installed when only analogue frequencies were allocated should be "tuned" to those of the local transmitter, and may well still cover the frequencies that digital broadcasts use after DSO but check here for your transmitter's allocations). You may therefore need to change to a wideband aerial (or add a different grouped one for digital-only reception) to receive all channels currently.

Finally replacing coax cable for digital reception, choose low-loss, double-screened (braid & foil), sometimes described as "satellite grade".
 
WHY are you redoing your cable?

How strong is reception now?

Incidentally it is better to take the coax direct to the tv/stb, not use a wall socket and plug lead, which can only intorduce losses, impedance mismatches, etc.

Have a look at wolfbane.

Incidentally, I presume, but do not know, that metal foils on roofing felt, insulation, etc. are bad news for loft aerials.
 
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WHY are you redoing your cable?

How strong is reception now?

Incidentally it is better to take the coax direct to the tv/stb, not use a wall socket and plug lead, which can only intorduce losses, impedance mismatches, etc.

Have a look at wolfbane.

Incidentally, I presume, but do not know, that metal foils on roofing felt, insulation, etc. are bad news for loft aerials.

Its a 2nd TV mainly for xbox 360, but as it has a built in digital receiver I was going to move the exisitng aerial in main livingroom (has sky) to room with new tv in, but isnt long enough, therefore planning to recable, but if im doing that I might as well as fit new aerial.

Or these there a way to utilise the sky sat dish?
 
It is wise to use double screened satelite coax bought from a repituble dealer but don't buy it off ebay.
I got a 100m roll for £25 from cpc and it's ok and it's cheaper to buy a drum than it is to buy it by the meter.


andy
 
Its a 2nd TV mainly for xbox 360, but as it has a built in digital receiver I was going to move the exisitng aerial in main livingroom (has sky) to room with new tv in, but isnt long enough, therefore planning to recable, but if im doing that I might as well as fit new aerial.

Or these there a way to utilise the sky sat dish?
Sat dishes look up (at an angle) to a satellite in the sky, not towards your transmitter, so unless you have a mega signal that could be received by a bent nail, will be no good.

I would suggest that you try the Freeview reception with your present livingroom aerial first, to see if it is rock solid/useless/marginal. And do wolfbane as in FAQs.
 

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