Roof aerial outlet?

[tryme]

Hello

We have an aerial in our loft that looks like it is wired up but I am not sure where it comes out. The only thing I can see is this box in our front room. Is this the roof aerial outlet? If so what cable would I need to connect it to a freeview box/now tv box?

Many thanks

 

[pete50]

https://www.screwfix.com/p/satellite-lead-f-plug-to-f-plug-1m/61186

But that is normally a satellite connection. If you have a standard aerial then you might need to adapt that socket using these:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/kenable-Connector-Socket-Aerial-Adapter-1PCS/dp/B003OSUU14 and one of these:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aerial-Coax-Flylead-Lead-electrosmart®-Black/dp/B002LG6I52

Your Freeview box and your Now TV box will have F connectors.

I think you need an arial man.

 

[bobsuerita]

now tv box works on wifi or ethernet cable no arial
freeview box needs and arial i tink

 

[tryme]

Thank you.

I think you need an aerial for the freeview channels iirc.

I have tried to chase the aerial from the loft but it just enters the floorboards.

If anyone else has any other tips they would be appreciated.

Also any idea why the wall socket has 2 ports? Thanks

 

[DaveHerns]

It may be a Virgin box, one outlet for broadband, the other going to the Virgin TV box.

 

[Iamchamps]

That is definitely a virgin isolator. Guessing from the age I would say 1 port is old FM and the other port standard for tv/broadband.

 

[DaveHerns]

I'd forgotten Virgin outlets with an FM connection!

 

[Lucid]

Hello

We have an aerial in our loft that looks like it is wired up but I am not sure where it comes out. The only thing I can see is this box in our front room. Is this the roof aerial outlet? If so what cable would I need to connect it to a freeview box/now tv box?

Many thanks

Thanks for posting the picture. That's always useful. At first sight I wondered if that box in your lounge might be a power supply for an aerial amp, but looking at the thickness of the cable going in to the back, and the fact that it appears to go to another wall box rather than a plug socket, then I think the guys who said it's a Virgin cable isolator probably have it correct. If you're not on Virgin already then connecting to that box will do nothing. If you were on Virgin then their installer would have already taken care of hooking up the right connections. Either way, I think you can safely forget the white box with two sockets.

What we need to focus on then is tracing the aerial (correct spelling ) cable from the loft. Here are the two most-likely scenarios and these will help to determine where to look for cables.

The first is that the aerial cable was installed by your house builder. For post 90's new build then this is a possibility but not an absolute guarantee. Where a house builder does install the cable they'll have run it in the wall cavities and you'll probably have wall-mounted aerial sockets in the lounge and possibly some other rooms too. Other tell-tail signs are that if you look at the outside walls of the house under the roof eaves there will be no aerial cables visible.

The second scenario is that the aerial was installed separate to the house build. This is more likely with older properties but can also happen with newer builds too. Here it's likely that the aerial cable will exit the loft somewhere under the eaves and then run down the outside wall to a point where it comes back in to the house. That gives you a clue where to look.

There is a third - less likely- scenario, and that's where the aerial cable was installed to supply a bedroom. This normally involves either taking a second feed from an existing aerial, or installing a second complete aerial kit. You could have a look at the loft aerial and see if there is more than one coax coming from it, or look outside to see if an aerial cable comes in to a bedroom from the outside wall.

In summary then, you're looking for aerial wall sockets or cables down the outside walls.

 

[tryme]

I could not see any cables coming down the outside walls other than the sky dish wires.
However my next door neighbour has got wires coming from their loft. Which would indicate perhaps our aerials were installed after the build. The loft aerial definitely only has one coax coming from it. It goes down the joists into the floor of the loft and I have no idea where it goes from there.

On the front of our house we have wires but they are black ones and I think they are just for the telephone.

I'm starting to wonder maybe the white box is something to do with the aerial.

There is anther small white box next to the one I showed earlier. However I think it is just something to do with an old telephone connection.

 

[Lucid]

All we can really do here is make some educated guesses based on the information you provide. Better photography might help. However, it might be better to have a trained pair of eyes on-site to look at this. That means getting in a decent aerial installer to work out what's going on.

There could be a side benefit to this. The frequencies for the signals for Freeview are being shuffled down to lower parts of the spectrum to make way for selling off more bandwidth to 4G telecoms. That might mean that the aerial you have is no longer the optimum choice now and for the medium-term future of Freeview in your area. I stress might, as without specific about your local transmitter and the aerial you already have this is another educated guess, but one based on knowledge of what's happening with frequencies and the reception characteristics of the most common aerials.

 

[tryme]

Hi

As suspected the white box didn't work. I had already purchased the connections online when I read on here that it probably wouldn't work. But as I purchased the wires I tried it anyway.

I will have another go at tracing the coax when it's daylight tomorrow or over the weekend. Would it not be possible for me to just splice off the current coax in the loft myself and run one down to the front room?

 

[Lucid]

Would it not be possible for me to just splice off the current coax in the loft myself and run one down to the front room?

If you're going to the trouble of getting a cable in to the loft then don't spoil the ship for a ha'peth of tar. Go the whole hog and disconnect the oold coax from the aerial and hook up the new directly to it.

 

[tryme]

I am going to disconnect the old coax and attach a new one to the roof aerial and feed it down to the front room.

What is the connector I will need for the socket on the end to plug into my now tv box? Can I use anything of the connectors in the links stated earlier as I have all 3 items now.

Many thanks

 

[Lucid]

The connector for the Now TV box is a male coax plug (that's the part that goes on to the end of your cable). The socket on the Now TV box itself is a female coax. Male goes in to female. Generally we'd use a male TV coaxial plug like this LINK fitted directly to the cable. You can find "how to" videos on Youtube for fitting.

As to the question about what you can reuse from the parts you have, that depends on how you intend to wire up.

The Now TV box doesn't have a aerial loop through. This is a female connection socket for the incoming signal along with a male connection socket so that the aerial cable can connect to a TV set of other downstream device. You'd wire this way if the TV was to be used standalone on Freeview as well as for watching the Now TV streamed content.

Since the Now TV box has only an RF input, then getting the Freeview signal to the main TV as well would require some kind of splitter. The aerial feed goes in to the splitter then feeds out to the the Now TV box and to the TV. This is subject to the aerial's signal being of good enough quality and sufficient strength to stand being split, of course.

Splitting would require some parts:

1:2 RF Splitter LINK This particular type uses the screw-on satellite-type F connections, so there's a chance you could make use of your F-to-F lead and fit the F to Coax plug on the end to make it a flylead from the splitter to the TV or Now TV box.

That leaves you needing a connection from the aerial down lead to the splitter (an F plug), and another F-to-coax fly lead for either the TV or Now TV box that isn't yet connected. For the last personally I'd use a length of the same coax as the downlead and fit an F plug on one end and a male coax on the other.

Don't buy crap cable.

The internet is awash with cheap low grade coax. Buying and using it is a false economy. The outer jacket doesn't last as well against the UV in sunlight and it becomes more brittle in cold weather. When it cracks and water gets in it eats the aluminium braiding causing a break in the conduction of the cable and so a loss of signal. If you've had a chip or nick in the varnish on alloy wheels then you'll have seen first-hand how aluminium reacts to the presence of water and air. Cheap coax does the same, only faster. This doesn't happen with better grade coax using all-copper foil shielding and copper braid.

The other issue with cheap coax is that the core is made from steel with a thin anodised layer of copper for appearance-sake. Steel is not such a good conductor as copper, so besides corrosion concerns you also have higher resistance because of the grade of materials and generally poorer construction of the cheaper coax. In short, less signal at the TV.

Labgear PF100 is under £6 for a 25m drum. It is the equivalent of 23p per metre. It's an all-copper construction RG6-sized cable, perfect for your needs and decent quality. Buy it.

If this and any other posts here have been helpful to you then do the decent thing and press the THANKS button. It costs you nothing and it is the proper way to show your appreciation for folk giving you the benefit of their time and knowledge. Mark your THANKS on EACH post you have found helpful. Thanks.

 

[tryme]

Thank you.

This is how the old coax looks.

Do I wire the new one up the same? Use the inside cable to go into the right socket and then use the copper braiding to go into the left socket?