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Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Tech Talk => Topic started by: sfbmwwife on February 26, 2018, 09:21:02 am

Title: Cable Hookup At Ho Hum RV Park Carrabelle..
Post by: sfbmwwife on February 26, 2018, 09:21:02 am
We seem to have problems hooking up to cable at this campground through the coach.  The cable connected directly to the tv through the window works fine.  Hans spent a good time testing all the cable hookups in the coach for signals and then a neighbor came over and said "you are wasting your time...the previous coach had the same problem and now is somewhere else and cable works perfect". So it must be their signal.  Does anyone know anything about different cable signals?  It never fails, there is always a challenge......
Title: Re: Cable Hookup At Ho Hum RV Park Carrabelle..
Post by: Chuck & Jeannie on February 26, 2018, 09:41:59 am
We always use our rooftop antenna (or DVDs) - good enough for our modest TV viewing needs.  But I understand many folks are "hooked" (ha, ha) on cable.  You could try using a "signal strength meter" to check the park pedestal coax connector, but I don't (personally) know if they work.

Amazon.com: cable tv signal strength meter (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cable+tv+signal+strength+meter&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acable+tv+signal+strength+meter)
Title: Re: Cable Hookup At Ho Hum RV Park Carrabelle..
Post by: Want2rv on February 26, 2018, 09:47:09 am
If you have a splitter in your coach cable system, it may cause just enough DB loss to decrease the signal to where your TV can't read it. Since you have at least 2 TV outlets, there is a 2 way splitter which causes a 3.5 DB loss per leg, even if there isn't a TV connected to it.
Title: Re: Cable Hookup At Ho Hum RV Park Carrabelle..
Post by: sfbmwwife on February 26, 2018, 09:55:03 am
The odd thing is that it does work well at other campgrounds.  It must be their signal strength then.
Title: Re: Cable Hookup At Ho Hum RV Park Carrabelle..
Post by: Tim Fiedler on February 26, 2018, 10:04:47 am
i suspect they have a problem with one or more of their connectors being marginal

Cable repair guys routinely swap out the cable ends (not the cable itself) first thing when ever their is a signal strength issue - data or video.

running the feed into the window vs.into coach utility bay bypasses whatever splitters you have in your coach, and all the connections in your coach. Each connection results in a bit of signal strength degradation (including those in the coach) - taking your coach connections (which may may not also have some issues of their own) out of the circuit allows a useable signal to get to your switching device

Less connections and less splitters is always good high quality cable vs. low quality cable is good when in doubt, replace the connectors first....

Tim Fiedler

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TCER Direct (http://www.tcerdirect.com) generator-gas-prod (http://www.generatorgasproducts.com) 630 240-9139
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Title: Re: Cable Hookup At Ho Hum RV Park Carrabelle..
Post by: sfbmwwife on February 27, 2018, 02:39:30 pm
Thanks Tim, you are right, the cable through the window works ok.  It must be the splitter cutting off the signals