milleniumaire
Established Member
My in-laws have recently had Sky+ installed and I want to help them distribute it to other TV's in the house. Attached is a (poor quality) photo of their existing amp in the loft and I have numbered the cables.
The aerial is installed in the loft and the coax cable running from it (cable 1 in the photo) connects to a Wolseley TV systems mast head amplifier, then runs on passed the distribution amp shown in the photo. It doesn't connect to the distribution amp, but I assume continues down to the viewing room.
The Antiference Power Unit (PU 1) shown in the photo to the right of the Antiference 4-outlet amplifier (UP2504) is what I assume is providing power to the masthead amp.
I assume that cable 3 is from the viewing room and connects to the IN UHF connection on the amp. I'm not sure where cable 2 comes from (brown cable behind others in the picture, but this is connected to the IN FM socket on the amp). Cables 4, 5 and 6 are connected to sockets labelled 1, 2 and 3 on the amp. As can be seen in the photo, cable 7 is from socket 4, also labelled as 12v and goes to the PU into the IN socket. The OUT socket on the PU runs to the old aerial outside. I can't remember if there is an aerial outside still, I suspect not as this might cause problems with two aerial feeds! (I'm not at the house at the moment so can't check).
My plan is to replace the amplifier with a Philex SLx 6 way distributor, however, I'm not sure which model to choose:
6-way Aerial distribution amplifier F-plug - Standard Amplifiers - Products - Philex (27823F)
6-way Satellite distribution amplifier F-plug - Standard Amplifiers - Products - Philex (Gold)
I'm not sure if I should go for the gold version or the (older?) 27823F model, whichever I choose I've decided to go for the version with the F connectors.
The older model gives upto 12 dB gain per split and includes 25mA line powering for masthead amps, which makes me think I could then remove the existing power supply for the masthead amp, to free up the power socket for the new amp (the existing amp doesn't require power).
If I went with the gold version (which I don't believe includes 25mA line powering) and gives only 8 dB gain per split then I guess I would need to connect the masthead power supply to one of the spare connectors on the amp to ensure power is provided. I assume I could simply use cable 7 to do this and the new amp connector doesn't have to allow for 12v (as the old amp connector appears to suggest). I would also need to use a power adapter to enable both the existing masthead amp PU and the new amp to plug into the single socket.
In either case I would stick with the mast head amp to boost the signal down to the viewing room, then into the sky box and out through UHF2 back up to the UHF input on the SLx. As far as I can see both amps would be cabled in the same way, apart from the extra cable required for the masthead amp PU on the SLx Gold, assuming the 25mA line power provided by the 27823F model does power the old Wolseley TV systems masthead amp.
I would appreciate confirmation/advice on my suggested approach.
The aerial is installed in the loft and the coax cable running from it (cable 1 in the photo) connects to a Wolseley TV systems mast head amplifier, then runs on passed the distribution amp shown in the photo. It doesn't connect to the distribution amp, but I assume continues down to the viewing room.
The Antiference Power Unit (PU 1) shown in the photo to the right of the Antiference 4-outlet amplifier (UP2504) is what I assume is providing power to the masthead amp.
I assume that cable 3 is from the viewing room and connects to the IN UHF connection on the amp. I'm not sure where cable 2 comes from (brown cable behind others in the picture, but this is connected to the IN FM socket on the amp). Cables 4, 5 and 6 are connected to sockets labelled 1, 2 and 3 on the amp. As can be seen in the photo, cable 7 is from socket 4, also labelled as 12v and goes to the PU into the IN socket. The OUT socket on the PU runs to the old aerial outside. I can't remember if there is an aerial outside still, I suspect not as this might cause problems with two aerial feeds! (I'm not at the house at the moment so can't check).
My plan is to replace the amplifier with a Philex SLx 6 way distributor, however, I'm not sure which model to choose:
6-way Aerial distribution amplifier F-plug - Standard Amplifiers - Products - Philex (27823F)
6-way Satellite distribution amplifier F-plug - Standard Amplifiers - Products - Philex (Gold)
I'm not sure if I should go for the gold version or the (older?) 27823F model, whichever I choose I've decided to go for the version with the F connectors.
The older model gives upto 12 dB gain per split and includes 25mA line powering for masthead amps, which makes me think I could then remove the existing power supply for the masthead amp, to free up the power socket for the new amp (the existing amp doesn't require power).
If I went with the gold version (which I don't believe includes 25mA line powering) and gives only 8 dB gain per split then I guess I would need to connect the masthead power supply to one of the spare connectors on the amp to ensure power is provided. I assume I could simply use cable 7 to do this and the new amp connector doesn't have to allow for 12v (as the old amp connector appears to suggest). I would also need to use a power adapter to enable both the existing masthead amp PU and the new amp to plug into the single socket.
In either case I would stick with the mast head amp to boost the signal down to the viewing room, then into the sky box and out through UHF2 back up to the UHF input on the SLx. As far as I can see both amps would be cabled in the same way, apart from the extra cable required for the masthead amp PU on the SLx Gold, assuming the 25mA line power provided by the 27823F model does power the old Wolseley TV systems masthead amp.
I would appreciate confirmation/advice on my suggested approach.