FTA through Cable TV

[emilus]

Hi, I cut off the cables that come off the wall and enter in the cable box on the outer wall( they come from bedroom and livingroom) and I hooked to them, my fta dish. I check and I have good view signal on my fta cable, but after I hook them up to the wires that run through my house walls, at the other ends I do not get any signal anymore. Why? I heard that they are too long and are loosing signal, or they are another impedance instead of 75ohm, or that that they have some sort of switches hiden inside the walls,...etc, anyway, doesn't work. Help please! Reply here or email. Thanks. Emil S.

P.S. Hi, I have my home(built new in 1999), prewired with cable tv inside walls for my livingroom and master bedroom and the other cable ends comes out of outer wall to a cable tv box. I've tried to use those cable ends for my fta dish. I have good signal up to those cables. If I hook my dish to them, the signal do not go to the other ends inside the house. Do they have any other devices hiden inside the walls as spliters or so, are them too long or some other impedance, other than 75ohm, or what, I cannot figure out what's wrong with this, why my fta signal wont go through these prewired cables. Please help. Thanks a milion. Emil Stanescu, Atlanta, GA., alias "emilus".

 

[empiretc]

there are probably splitters.

 

[Anole]

. . . I would certainly bet on it.

AND, your LNB is powered by your FTA receiver.
The cable needs to be unloaded by odd Cable TV hardware to work at all for FTA.

THEN, if you were thinking you could hook up more than one FTA receiver, as you can TV sets with a Cable TV setup, well that won't work, either.

 

[badhat]

All RF cables used in cable are 75 ohm. What you need to look at is the splitter(s) that you are using. You will need power pass splitters to get the power back up the cable to your LNB's. Standard splitters used in cable setups won't pass power.

 

[emilus]

Why are them hiden in he walls? Maybe to make them un-usable for some other use then specificly for cable TV. How can I find(locate) them and bypass them?, again why they are hiden inside the walls. I need a real solution to over power them in order to make them work, some way, some how. Only cable TV technicians may know best about these problems. If any of you guys knows more about this, please help me. Thanks again.

 

[emilus]

I have no spliters or switches on my site. Dual LNB to two receivers, that's it. I hve signal on both ends before hook-up, none after. So, the wires themselve have some hiden glitches along them, inbetwin the outer wall and the outlets in the bedroom and livingroom. Why, why, why, it hapens that to me? I go crazy about it. I'm not gonna tear off the house, just to find out where is the problem. Just as I said, there has to be a way to overpower them. How? That's what I need to find out. Again, pleease help. Thanks a milion. Emil S.

 

[badhat]

You said you have a newer house. If there is only one cable outside located close to power you probably have a media center where all the cables come together. Or if all your cables go to a central location outside the house you might want to take your wall plates off in the house and make sure the electrician didn't wire them in series using two way splitters. If in fact that you find out they have been wired in series you will need to use a toner and some barrels to make them one piece to each location you need the satellite receivers to work. I have seen electricians do this a million times, pre-wire in series, and I'm not sure why they do it.... except maybe they save cost by not home running them all the way outside.

 

[emilus]

No, I have two cable ends coming out of outer wall and two single outputs in the house, so, each cable end from outer wall, goes, one to livingroom and one to bedroom, I mean the other coresponding ends of each individual cable. So, once again, two ends on the outer wall, and the other two ends inside house, one in livingr and one in bedr.

 

[badhat]

Oh that's odd... so two cables straight through to each location..... in theory should work just fine. Have you had cable tv or satellite over these cables previous to now? It's possible they are shorted somehow. Did you put your own fittings on these cables? And if so is there any strand wrapped around the center conductor?

 

[Wescopc]

I would check for shorts by disconnecting both ends and use an ohm meter and test between the nut and the center connector - should be zero ohms. Also, with the receiver connected to the cable end in the house, you should have 13~18 volts outside with the LNB disconnected.
Bob

 

[SatPhreak]

It might also be that the old wire is rg-59 and not rg-6. Sometimes rg-59 won't work for satellite. I only tried one time with existing rg-59 (no slitters or connectors) and it didn't work so I swaped to rg-6 and had no problem. I was lucky as it was run in an unfinished basement and was easy to get at and swap out.

 

[rv1pop]

I would check for shorts by disconnecting both ends and use an ohm meter and test between the nut and the center connector - should be zero ohms. Also, with the receiver connected to the cable end in the house, you should have 13~18 volts outside with the LNB disconnected.
Bob

Zero ohms would indicae a short is true, but that is not what I would want to see. You want to see infinity at least 19.9999 megohms. The voltage check is correct.
It also sounds to me to not be RG6. It sounds more light CHEAP RG58. The cable you used to get at electrical whsle houses hardly worked with cable!

 

[Wescopc]

Zero ohms would indicae a short is true, but that is not what I would want to see. You want to see infinity at least 19.9999 megohms. The voltage check is correct.
It also sounds to me to not be RG6. It sounds more light CHEAP RG58. The cable you used to get at electrical whsle houses hardly worked with cable!

Thank you Pop!
I certainly meant to say infinite ohms as in not measurable! LOL
Bob

 

[SatelliteAV]

Look at the cable for printing that indicates the type of cable and brand. Prewiring in 1999 could have been excellent quality Quad Shield RG-6 or cheap RG-59 with a few threads of copper strands providing shielding. Just depends on the knowledge of the electrician, cost of materials and request of the customer.

If you can't find any printing on the coax, strip back a few inches on the sheath and snap a digital photo and post.

I use pre-wiring to pull through my own cables! LOL!!!!

 

[emilus]

Indeed, they are RG6 Quad

 

[emilus]

I have no short, I have no 13-18v on them(with receiver on either end inside)

 

[emilus]

Unless the cables are cut off somewhere!

 

[DishDigger]

It sounds like you have severed cables OR have splitters installed for future use. It's possible that the wiring goes up into the attic where maybe a splitter is installed so that additional wiring can be added at a later date. The RG6 quad should be excellent cable, but there's a discontinuity (D.C. wise) that's blocking your satellite usage.

Good luck, hope you find the problem & get it fixed.....:up

 

[emilus]

You right DishDigger, it may be "the attic" problem, because now I discovered another output in another bedroom and all 3 now are clean single outputs. So, from 2 out(side)-inputs, I have actualy 3 in(side)-outputs. I have to dig out, up in the attic for more clues. Thanks guys, thanks DishDigger. If anybody has new ideas, you welcome. When I'm gonna find out, I'm gonna let all of you know. Thanks again. Emil S.

 

[DishDigger]

Carry some barrel connectors with you and replace those splitters while you're up in that hot attic - ha. Once you have a D.C. continuous trail throughout your cable, you should be able to meove on to getting FTA working -- all the best to ya....