Educate me - what is a female coaxial cable?

[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?

I'll give it 'til after the weekend, and if I don't get all channels back, will try an indoor one

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

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.

Because of the set up. TV is on a sort of chest of drawers type of thing, which in turn is next to a higher bookcase so Humax and DVD player are higher than TV. Between the two of them is floor space for the plug adaptor. The TV is only a foot away from the Humax (although Humax is higher)

 

[gentlegreen]

I'll give it 'til after the weekend, and if I don't get all channels back, will try an indoor one

Don't you live in a basement flat ?

Bottom line is you didn't change anything at your end and you suddenly lost channels - so the problem is nearer the aerial.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Don't you live in a basement flat ?

Bottom line is you didn't change anything at your end and you suddenly lost channels - so the problem is nearer the aerial.

This is friend's place. They're even more technically challenged than I am

TV channels are now showing up in the listings which is a good sign. Unfortunately, when you click on them, there's no picture

Have BBC back, but no ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 (although we have 5+1) and no Film 4 (but have Film 4+1). Pick is back, but pixellating

No Corrie tonight

 

[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?

I would still like a shorter cable though (from the wall socket to the Humax), if only to neaten up the mass of cables, so what exactly should I be looking for please?

 

[2hats]

I would still like a shorter cable though (from the wall socket to the Humax), if only to neaten up the mass of cables, so what exactly should I be looking for please?

What does the 'antenna in' socket look like on the back of the Humax (was helpfully covered in the photo you posted earlier )?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

What does the 'antenna in' socket look like on the back of the Humax (was helpfully covered in the photo you posted earlier )?

This

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

oh, the Antenna IN socket?

Why do I need that one. The cable's going into the Antenna OUT

 

[2hats]

Without reading the manual for the model of Humax I'm just guessing that 'Antenna In' is the input from the aerial and 'Antenna Out' is the output to another device (eg TV) - it's a UHF bypass (not needed if you chain the TV off the Humax via SCART or HDMI).

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Sorry, that's the other one innit

Hang on

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I have an HDMI connection between TV and Humax as well

 

[2hats]

OK. So it looks like you need a short female to male coax cable to run from the aerial wall socket to the Humax. Something like this would probably suffice. Note that that is male to male with a female to female adapter/coupler (I can't see any male to female floating around).

Then leave the TV chained off the Humax via HDMI to watch programmes off the Humax. Run a cable from the Humax 'Antenna Out' to the TV aerial input if you want to tune the TV separately and watch something on that whilst the Humax records/does its thing.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Yeah, definitely need to be able to watch something on the TV while Humax records.

So I don't need to search for something called a Fly Lead then?

Need to find one that's longer than that though.

So that loose little bit? What do I do with that, stick it on one end and that end becomes female?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

If it was me, I would cut out a section and re-assemble it with tape.

No, electrics and cables scare me, especially bare wires!

 

[2hats]

So I don't need to search for something called a Fly Lead then?

Need to find one that's longer than that though.

So that loose little bit? What do I do with that, stick it on one end and that end becomes female?

Correct. That is a 'fly lead'. Plug the female-female adapter on one end of the cable to turn the cable into a female-male cable. They do a longer 1.5m version and a 3m one. Google around - there are other vendors both cheaper and more expensive. Screwfix appear to do something not dissimilar for under £2.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

2hats!

So the female to male coax aerial cable I need is also called a Fly Lead yes?

There seems to be lots of male to female ones on Amazon

Having measured, it looks like I'd need 3.5 metres.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...eld-keywords=male to female coax aerial cable

Gotta get dinner out the oven. Shall have a look later

 

[2hats]

There seems to be lots of male to female ones on Amazon

Having measured, it looks like I'd need 3.5 metres.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=electronics&field-keywords=male to female coax aerial cable

Be careful. Not all those cables (in fact most of the hits returned) in that search are what you are looking for. Only the first two would be the correct ones (at a glance).

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Be careful. Not all those cables (in fact most of the hits returned) in that search are what you are looking for. Only the first two would be the correct ones (at a glance).

They're very cheap, which makes me wonder about the quality

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I'm reading up on aerials.

Have seen double-screened and foam insulators mentioned in a couple of places

http://www.stevelarkins.freeuk.com/digital-coaxial-cable.htm

http://www.wrightsaerials.co.uk/articles/coax-cable-quality.shtml

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

2hats

What about this one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Profigold-H...0+male+to+female+coaxial+aerial+and+profigold

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Well I never knew this!

SCART = (Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs)

I hope people are learning from this thread

 

[2hats]

What about this one?

Looks like it will do the job, yes.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Looks like it will do the job, yes.

Excellent

I may get that though, although I'm thinking I'd prefer one with foam. Those ones look like fairly thick cable and therefore hard to bend which is going to be difficult as back of Humax is quite close to wall.

This type of things sounds better, but I can only find cable, not cable with connectors

Type ‘B’: Foam dielectric with copper tape and copper braid.
These cables are identical to type ‘A’ products, except that they have a foam rather than semi-airspaced dielectric. Semi-airspaced cables can deform quite easily if mishandled, and for that reason foam cables, which are more robust when bent and crushed, are making a comeback. It is very difficult to fit semi-airspaced cable into a backbox without it kinking, so the re-introduction of foam cables looks like a good idea. The foam cables of yesteryear absorbed atmospheric and other moisture very readily, causing severe performance degradation, but the manufacturers assure us that the modern products are free of this defect. This type of cable is similar in price to the type ‘A’ ones, or perhaps slightly cheaper. The many different products available include Webro WF100 and Cavel QF100.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

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?


View attachment 57352

3 frigging hours I've spent this morning retuning and retuning and retuning and getting nowhere, so decided to try this lead again, and everything has reappeared first try.

Which means we're stuck with manky brown lead that I wanted to get rid of

 

[gentlegreen]

Nothing much wrong with twisted connections - though if it was me, I would at least try to recreate the coaxial geometry of the cable.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Bumped into neighbour today. Turns out when they were installing new entry phone systems, well the controls or whatever are located in the basement, as is stuff for the communal aerial. They switched off electricity to sort door systems off and forgot to switch it back on again

They finally did it on Monday, by which time I'd bought a new aerial already