When we bought this house, there was a Sky dish on the South chimney, the lead from which went into the dining room (ground floor, south).
On the North chimney is a TV aerial and (what I think is) an FM aerial. The cable from the TV aerial comes into the loft, where there used to be a six-way booster / splitter, from which co-ax cables ran to the four berooms and the dining room.
When the chap came to re-do the alarm system, he took out that splitter and installed a small mains booster with two F sockets, one IN and one OUT, the OUT then runs out through the wall and then into the parlour (North), where it works fine - although I did fit another mains booster as we frequently got pixillation, which seems to have improved since.
From the parlour socket was daisy-chained a cable to a socket in the study.
When we bought the house, all the aerial leads were flying leads. I have been replacing these with proper fixed flush-mounted aerial sockets. When I re-did the parlour socket I daisy-chained the existing cables to the new socket, and when I tried it, the outlet in the study worked fine.
Now we have just bought a second TV to go in the West bedroom. But how do I identify which, of the five loose co-ax cables in the loft, is the one that emerges in that bedroom ?
I knocked up a "circuit-tester" - a mains plug leading to an on-off switch on the live lead which then goes to a mains LED, and then to a pair of wander leads that, when touched, complete the Neutral connection.
I made up an aerial plug with the ends connected (a "stop-end"), so that, when plugged into a socket, provide continuity between the sheath and the core of the cable being tested. Plug that into the bedroom socket, then go up into the loft, and test each cable in turn by putting one wander lead into the core of that cable, and the other on the sheath. If the LED lights up when I throw the switch, then I know that is the cable with the "stop end" plugged in.
But it doesn't work ! Regardless of which co-ax cable the stop-end is plugged into (in a bedroom), one cable (always the same one) makes the LED light, and the others don't. So I guess that the one that does light up must have an earth fault somewhere along its length anyway. But why doesn't one of the others light up ?
It's a mystery...
BUT - the point is... once I have identified all cables in the loft with their destinations... then what ? Do I re-install the six-way splitter ? How can I test it ? Or should I buy a new one ?
Should I have a booster in each room ?
I gather "signal quality" is not good in this village (Okeford Fitzpaine). All aerials in the village point East - to the Isle of Wight, I guess.
And... No, we don't subscribe to Sky, but should we do so, can we use the existing cables to feed Sky to all rooms ?
On the North chimney is a TV aerial and (what I think is) an FM aerial. The cable from the TV aerial comes into the loft, where there used to be a six-way booster / splitter, from which co-ax cables ran to the four berooms and the dining room.
When the chap came to re-do the alarm system, he took out that splitter and installed a small mains booster with two F sockets, one IN and one OUT, the OUT then runs out through the wall and then into the parlour (North), where it works fine - although I did fit another mains booster as we frequently got pixillation, which seems to have improved since.
From the parlour socket was daisy-chained a cable to a socket in the study.
When we bought the house, all the aerial leads were flying leads. I have been replacing these with proper fixed flush-mounted aerial sockets. When I re-did the parlour socket I daisy-chained the existing cables to the new socket, and when I tried it, the outlet in the study worked fine.
Now we have just bought a second TV to go in the West bedroom. But how do I identify which, of the five loose co-ax cables in the loft, is the one that emerges in that bedroom ?
I knocked up a "circuit-tester" - a mains plug leading to an on-off switch on the live lead which then goes to a mains LED, and then to a pair of wander leads that, when touched, complete the Neutral connection.
I made up an aerial plug with the ends connected (a "stop-end"), so that, when plugged into a socket, provide continuity between the sheath and the core of the cable being tested. Plug that into the bedroom socket, then go up into the loft, and test each cable in turn by putting one wander lead into the core of that cable, and the other on the sheath. If the LED lights up when I throw the switch, then I know that is the cable with the "stop end" plugged in.
But it doesn't work ! Regardless of which co-ax cable the stop-end is plugged into (in a bedroom), one cable (always the same one) makes the LED light, and the others don't. So I guess that the one that does light up must have an earth fault somewhere along its length anyway. But why doesn't one of the others light up ?
It's a mystery...
BUT - the point is... once I have identified all cables in the loft with their destinations... then what ? Do I re-install the six-way splitter ? How can I test it ? Or should I buy a new one ?
Should I have a booster in each room ?
I gather "signal quality" is not good in this village (Okeford Fitzpaine). All aerials in the village point East - to the Isle of Wight, I guess.
And... No, we don't subscribe to Sky, but should we do so, can we use the existing cables to feed Sky to all rooms ?
