Educate me - what is a female coaxial cable?

[twentythreedom]

At this point I'm hoping your coax connector is not of the types used in nuclear applications!

What would happen if it was?

 

[DotCommunist]

armagideon time?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Sounds like the Humax has a more sensitive tuner than the TV.

Just done another retune on TV. 32 channels again Not even a single main channel (ie. BBC1-Ch 5)

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Humax has found 79 channels, but whereas before it was everything PSB2 mux thingy that was missing (ie. ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 etc), it's now missing BBC1 and 2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and more.

 

[gentlegreen]

Sounds like you have a problem with the aerial - does it have a clear line of sight, or could a tree have moved into the way ?
Or has something else changed ?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Sounds like you have a problem with the aerial - does it have a clear line of sight, or could a tree have moved into the way ?
Or has something else changed ?

It's on top floor of a block of flats (ie. 6 floors up).

Heard men in the attic this morning, but don't know if they were dealing with water tanks or going up to the roof

Them going up into the attic isn't a rare thing though, but have never asked them what they're doing up there

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Have just gone through manual searching.

No channels found on Nos. 26, 30, 33 and 35

 

[gentlegreen]

Sounds like they may have tripped over or cut something.
That high up, you might well expect to get a surprising number of channels with a half-severed connection.
I lived in a house once where you could get all four analogue stations in one room with just a random bit of wire.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I dunno. It's frustrating, but barring that, I want to sort my cables out, so I still need to figure out which cables I'm supposed to be getting

 

[gentlegreen]

So why do you need new cables ? Have you changed your setup ?

Thinking about it, one possibility is that they cut the power to a distribution amplifier.
Are you on good terms with any of your neighbours so you can see if they have the same problem ?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Is a flylead a tv aerial cable or something completely different?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

So why do you need new cables ? Have you changed your setup ?

Thinking about it, one possibility is that they cut the power to a distribution amplifier.
Are you on good terms with any of your neighbours so you can see if they have the same problem ?

Don't need new cables, but have always heard that unnecessarily long cables can affect reception, so thought it might be worth a try getting shorter ones

No, don't bother with the neighbours, and I think quite a few of them probably have Sky and the like, whereas here is just Freeview

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Still retuning and getting different numbers found all the time.

*wants to smash things up*

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Latest retune on Humax has brought back the BBC and ITV channels, but I'm missing Pick! How indeed am I going to watch Stargate?!

 

[joustmaster]

Latest retune on Humax has brought back the BBC and ITV channels, but I'm missing Pick! How indeed am I going to watch Stargate?!

http://watchseries.lt/serie/stargate_sg-1

 

[joustmaster]

why do you need any cables if you already have the humax connected to the TV?

 

[gentlegreen]

Unless it's very long, the cable won't make any significant difference.
A flylead is just a cable with a plug on either end.

When something's majorly wrong at the aerial end, you'll find that even a change in humidity will affect the channels you can receive.
You need to get them to put right whatever they've done.
(or the weather)

Or in the case of our satellite dishes at work, it was a corvid stashing berries in the feed horns.

 

[mr steev]

If you're getting different channels every time you retune it is doubtful that it's a dodgy lead. More likely the aerial or something interfering with it

 

[gentlegreen]

With regards flylead problems, the one exception I experienced recently - and to my shame I contacted Virgin Media - was when I squidged the coax cable with my chair.

 

[2hats]

There's always the possibility you are getting too much signal, instead of too little. Probably really needs an aerial engineer with RF meter to examine the aerial system at various points, particularly if it is some communal setup.

As an experiment perhaps you could borrow a decent indoor antenna and plug that in to the Humax and/or TV and then try tuning them?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

http://watchseries.lt/serie/stargate_sg-1

It's alright, I've watched every episode, but I'm watching them all again

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

why do you need any cables if you already have the humax connected to the TV?

erm, dunno.

The cable from the socket in the wall to the Humax is about 6 feet longer than it needs to be and I've read that having too long a cable can be bad

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

There's always the possibility you are getting too much signal, instead of too little. Probably really needs an aerial engineer with RF meter to examine the aerial system at various points, particularly if it is some communal setup.

As an experiment perhaps you could borrow a decent indoor antenna and plug that in to the Humax and/or TV and then try tuning them?

Well on No. 26 (when doing manual installation), quality and strength is at 0

I'm going to have to retry the tv aerial that is hooked up to something else outside, except I'd already bundled that up into the corner 'cos I'm sick of it. It's massively long and has a connection like this.

Will I die if I accidentally touch that wire?

 

[maomao]

Unless it's very long, the cable won't make any significant difference.

How long is very long? I'm planning to run 8 metres of tv cable into the dining room so we can have watch telly in there (and more importantly when cooking/washing up).

 

[2hats]

Will I die if I accidentally touch that wire?

That all depends as to what is on the other end of it.

Properly installed coax UHF cables shouldn't be carrying any significant current/voltage (except for momentarily when struck by lightning/local ground current surge).

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

If you're getting different channels every time you retune it is doubtful that it's a dodgy lead. More likely the aerial or something interfering with it

Oh, well definitely getting different channels every time. Sometimes all the BBC ones go, then on next retune, they're back, but others have disappeared, and so on. I've been at this all frigging day, and I reckon it's going to just fix itself, but it's getting towards soap time! And there's World Cup coming up over the weekend, so hope problem resolves itself by then

 

[2hats]

How long is very long? I'm planning to run 8 metres of tv cable into the dining room so we can have watch telly in there (and more importantly when cooking/washing up).

The quality of the cable and the connectors matters more, along with the level of the input signal. I have runs of 20+m of coax which sustain sufficient signal.

1m is too long if the input signal is poor and that 1m attenuates sufficiently to the point that the equipment on the end of the cable can't do anything with it.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

That all depends as to what is on the other end of it.

I have no idea. It goes out of the window and on to the roof. When there was scaffolding up decades ago, some guy from the TV repair shop scrambled onto the roof with that cable and hooked it up to something, but I have no idea what. I assume it was someone else's aerial. It's stupidly long and I want rid of it. Obviously I can't get rid of the bit coming from the roof in through the window (or I risk pulling something else off the roof), but it would be nice to get rid of that bundle of cable from inside

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

The quality of the cable and the connectors matters more, along with the level of the input signal. I have runs of 20+m of coax which sustain sufficient signal.

1m is too long if the input signal is poor and that 1m attenuates sufficiently to the point that the equipment on the end of the cable can't do anything with it.

The cable coming from that Sky wall socket to the Humax is probably 6 foot too long.

On the cable from the tv to the Humax, that's obviously not as long, but it would still reach if it was half the length.

 

[gentlegreen]

Why not get a shorter cable, move the TV nearer and see if it makes any difference ?

A shame you don't live near me, we've chucked out masses of TV cables over recent years.

If the cable had removeable pugs, you could shorten the cable.
If it was me, I would cut out a section and re-assemble it with tape.