Am I losing signal using multiple coax extensions?

[Dyl Mckee]

Thank you for the image. That looks like a good location on your property.

Here are the closeup Longley-Rice coverage maps:

Thanks for the images!

 

[Dyl Mckee]

So no answer as to whether going from 3 coax extenders down to 1 or 0 and quad shield cables instead of dual shield cables, if that would slightly increase my signal strength? I seriously only need the tiniest nudge in signal strength.

 

[Dyl Mckee]

also going to reduce the cable total length by 20ft

 

[Jim5506]

Every connection you make in the cable will loose about 0.5 dB. Four cables made into one then will net a loss of about 1.5 dB compared to a solid single cable. 3 dB is a 50% loss, but dB is a logarithmic scale not a geometric scale, so I estimate that to be maybe about a 25% loss in three connections.

A shorter cable would have slightly less loss also.

As for quad shield, it is to prevent local strong interference from penetrating into the wire. If you don't have other signal sources or sources of RF nearby, there is not really any need to go quad shield.

 

[rabbit73]

So no answer as to whether going from 3 coax extenders down to 1 or 0 and quad shield cables instead of dual shield cables, if that would slightly increase my signal strength? I seriously only need the tiniest nudge in signal strength.

Since you are using a preamp, the coax you should keep short is the coax between the antenna and the input of the preamp. The loss in that coax reduces the antenna gain.

The loss in the coax after the preamp isn't as critical because the preamp has increased the strength of the signals before they travel down the coax.

To answer your question, going to one continuous length of coax will reduce the coax loss a small amount, as will making the coax a little shorter.

However, there is no guarantee that the increase in signal strength after the preamp will improve your reception of marginal signals.

There are other advantages of going to one continuous length of coax. It will reduce the chances of poor connections in the coax and make the voltage to the preamp more reliable.

If you have any doubts, female coax connectors should be checked to be sure they are reliable.

 

[Dyl Mckee]

Every connection you make in the cable will loose about 0.5 dB. Four cables made into one then will net a loss of about 1.5 dB compared to a solid single cable. 3 dB is a 50% loss, but dB is a logarithmic scale not a geometric scale, so I estimate that to be maybe about a 25% loss in three connections.

A shorter cable would have slightly less loss also.

As for quad shield, it is to prevent local strong interference from penetrating into the wire. If you don't have other signal sources or sources of RF nearby, there is not really any need to go quad shield.

Thanks! Also I actually think I'm currently using two 1 shield rg6 cables, They are quite thin very flexible rg6 cables so I'm guessing it's not even dual shield. I have a 100ft quad shield cable coming tomorrow, hoping for good results!