Coax over Ethernet?

[nero44]

ah very interesting and thank god I raised it here!

I thought the aerial on top of my house picks up both, as on my TV when I run a full tuning scan at some point my TV picks up all the radio channels as well. Usually they are placed at the end of the range e.g. channel 980 to 999. Just a black screen but with all the radio channels. Where are these signals then coming from?

Edit:
Doing some quick google search >>
In the UK, most standard TVs do not have built-in DAB/FM radio tuners, but they offer digital radio stations through Freeview (DVB-T2), which includes over 50 stations

I am guessing my TV is just getting these digital radio stations through Freeview, as my TV has a tuner inbuilt. That's basically all I want to play in my kitchen, but in a clean wall mounted setup. I don't intend to have a TV in my kitchen, but perhaps future proofing is still worthwhile the work. Need to reconsider my plans. I guess what is clear is that connecting the aerial coax cable to a device that accept DAB/FM is a non-starter!

 

[JohnD]

All good ideas thanks. Will checkout these baluns, but it seems they need to be powered with some DC power, so additional socket. Not sure maybe it will be easier to just get under the floor and lay a fresh coax.

I don't follow that. When I used baluns they were passive devices. Are you thinking of an aerial amp and splitter? Power usage is tiny so often run off a lighting circuit in the loft.

 

[flameport]

when I run a full tuning scan at some point my TV picks up all the radio channels as well.

Those radio channels are on one or more of the same UHF multiplexes that are used for TV.
Unrelated to DAB which is an entirely separate service on different frequencies.

 

[endecotp]

I am guessing my TV is just getting these digital radio stations through Freeview, as my TV has a tuner inbuilt. That's basically all I want to play in my kitchen, but in a clean wall mounted setup.

Yes, and it seems that no-one makes a “DVB-T Radio”, i.e. a device that looks like a radio i.e. no screen but receives audio-only DVB-T channels. I’d buy one if someone made one.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yes, and it seems that no-one makes a “DVB-T Radio”, i.e. a device that looks like a radio i.e. no screen but receives audio-only DVT-T channels. I’d buy one if someone made one.

You can buy some TV's where you can turn the screen off.

 

[endecotp]

I’ve just done a quick test, splicing various wires into the aerial feed to my TV.

50cm of mains cable (T&E) doesn’t work.
About 20m of phone wire (on a drum) doesn’t work.
3m of CAT5E does work!

That is with just bodges at the connections, holding wires together by hand etc.
I’ve not tried to measure the signal strength.

Points to note:

- The different characteristic impedance of coax vs. twisted pairs is significant, but I believe this results in the sort of distortion that the DVB-T modulation scheme is designed to cope with.

- My bit of network cable was just hanging in the air. If I had laid it next to an active network cable, or near an electrically noisy device, maybe it wouldn’t have worked. But maybe screened network cable would have been OK.

- My signal strength at the aerial is moderate, but there is an amplifier.

 

[Lucid]

ah very interesting and thank god I raised it here!

I thought the aerial on top of my house picks up both, as on my TV when I run a full tuning scan at some point my TV picks up all the radio channels as well. Usually they are placed at the end of the range e.g. channel 980 to 999. Just a black screen but with all the radio channels. Where are these signals then coming from?

Edit:
Doing some quick google search >>
In the UK, most standard TVs do not have built-in DAB/FM radio tuners, but they offer digital radio stations through Freeview (DVB-T2), which includes over 50 stations

I am guessing my TV is just getting these digital radio stations through Freeview, as my TV has a tuner inbuilt. That's basically all I want to play in my kitchen, but in a clean wall mounted setup. I don't intend to have a TV in my kitchen, but perhaps future proofing is still worthwhile the work. Need to reconsider my plans. I guess what is clear is that connecting the aerial coax cable to a device that accept DAB/FM is a non-starter!

As you've found out, Freeview includes some digital TV channels which are 'audio only'. These are the radio station channels. The number nationally is around 50, but because of regionalisation, you'll probably get somewhere around 20~25 of them.

If you add a DAB or FM or DAB/FM combo aerial package to your TV aerial mast then you can make use of the coax. It just seems like overkill unless there really are some local radio stations you can't get via Internet radio.

We know that the future of TV broadcasting is going to move away from transmitter masts, TV aerials, and satellite dishes. How soon it will all move IP is a question of debate. There's still a lot to organise before that can happen.

As for radio, successive governments have been trying to kill FM for a quarter of a century. They might have succeeded if DAB had focussed on quality rather than the number of channels. DAB+ gave them a second bite of the cherry, but the chance was squandered. More channels won the day.

Personally, I think DAB/DAB+ is a dead duck in the UK other than for cars. If I had to guess, I'd say that the government would love to move all radio transmission to the Internet - and that includes FM, DAB, DAB+ - so they can sell off what's left of the broadcast spectrum to the mobile data companies.