Re: Increasing Cable TV signal strength

Then you would hate most microwave connectors lit SMA.

You didn't need heat shrink on good 'F' connectors.

Not needed, if you use flooded outdoor cable.

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You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell
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A 'special tool' that only cost about $20 and would do thousands of crimps before it was worn out. I've bought them new, on sale for $8 US. You admitted to using pliers on the cheap crap, and you certainly can't do that with a hex crimp.

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You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Umm... you've never tripped over a cable, had the equipment fall off the table with the cables attached, run RG6a/u up a pole to where it has to support its own weight, moved furniture with cables still attached, flexed the connector when used as a test lead, pulled cable through the wall or conduit with connectors attached, etc? These are all very common situations which will stress the connector to cable connection. While it might not be a problem for a fixed (stapled in place) installation, it certainly will be a problem for the average home user.

I find it odd that outdoor CATV uses quad shielded cable to prevent RF leakage and ingress, and having the cable swept to perfection, while you recommend using inferior F connectors.

I do have some issues with RG6a/u that uses copper plated steel core center wire. Mostly, it's a corrosion problem for outdoor connections where the home owner does their own wiring, and uses F connectors without the necessary rubber o-ring needed for waterproofing. I've swept F connectors on the bench and find them quite good and often superior to the rare 75 ohm TNC and BNC connectors near the top end (2GHz for satellite). Incidentally, most of the antennas (that survived a recent storm) on my roof use RG6a/u coax. The mismatch loss between 50 and 75 ohms is minimal. Some use F connectors, but most use BNC's made for RG6a/u.

Ahem. I worked for a marine radio company during the 1970's. I learned a few things about waterproofing and corrosion. Heat shrink doesn't work. Capillary action along the heat shrink to connector boundary will suck the water into the connector.

What I use (when needed) is a layer of 1" PTFE tape (or 1/2" if that's all I can find) over the connector. Once in place, a layer of Scotch

66 or other electrical tape to hold it in place. The PTFE will cold flow into the irregularities on the connector surface, and there will be zero capillary action. If I want UV resistance, I spray the tape with clear Krlyon (acrylic) spray.

While we're on the topic, I've experimented with various allegedly waterproof enclosures and packages. The only ones I consider genuinely waterproof are sealed and pressurized with dry air. Anything less will eventually leak.

I have and all too often. I was at the neighbors trying to troubleshoot their Comcast cable tv and modem mess. They had some friend of theirs do the wiring. All the F connectors were crimp ring type and were falling apart. The coax was mostly RG-59 with maybe 80% coverage. I replaced the most disgusting and will finish the job when I have time.

DeOxit and Cramolin contain oleic acid, which will slightly corrode copper. It's good for CLEANING connectors by removing the oxides, but should not be left on the connector. If you want to make sure that you can take the connector apart after the threads rot in place due to galvanic action between the aluminum receptacle, and the nickel plated crimp type F connector, some silicon or lithium grease would probably be better.

Some notes on the contents:

As for special tools, I love them. My various cable preparation tools for various coax cable have saved me countless hours of fumbling with a pocket knife and diagonal cutters. Using the various compression tools on F connectors almost guarantee a good connection, unless I did something dumb. Same with crimp lugs, various LMR-xxx coax cables, and Anderson Power Pole connectors. The days of using a hammer or vice grips to crimp a connector are over. The cost can be substantial, but is well worth it if you work with connectors regularly.

About $35/ea.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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Did you miss: "IN THE NEXT DECADE"?

A big crowd is what percentage of their customer base?

No one has a 'right to' cable TV. I was at one meeting where a citizen was demanding that they revoke our franchise. They told him that one complaint out of 10,000 customers wasn't enough reason to revoke. he was as arrogant as you. Everything had to be his way. He got really pissed when they told him to buy a satellite dish and go away. His demand was a s ignorant as yours. He was demanding that he bring back CBS ARTS, and wouldn't listen that CBS had dropped the service. One other complaint was from a woman demanding that our franchise be pulled because CSPAN was down for a couple days during the modification of a 5 meter dish to multiple feeds.

Sigh. Just because there is a new agreement for the industry doesn't mean that all existing have to comply. Some companies are FIOS. By your standards, everything else should be replaced overnight. Then the distance won't matter at all. I doubt that the income from that marina will ever pay back the construction costs. the system worked for analog, when it was installed. There are no guarantees in life. Stop trying to walk on water, you'll drown.

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You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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MoCA is home networking, hence the 300 foot figure. A drop at +10 dBmv already allows a 25 dB loss for the cable modem, since they are designed to work to -15 dBmv. That webpage also mentions verifing that a "drop amplifier does not block Moca". In other words, it's home networking for multimedia devices and has nothing to do with the length of the cable drop. It is to allow customers to stream audio and video within their home, and use services like Netflix & Hulu on their TV sets.

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You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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Where do you live? The parts of FL I have seen were are technologically advanced, I guess. This stuff is rolled out here in CA, big time. Things like the DCX3200M box and their DVR are MoCA.

In case you've missed it, MoCA has already release 2.0. More than a year ago ...

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

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It is the modern cable TV, like it or not. Companies not playing will likely be packing some day. Personally I doubt it'll do much for home networking, at least not appliance control. Computing, yes, and that's the new game in town. Cable companies offering "all-in-one" packages where you get phone, Internet, TV and all that from the "company store". Pretty pricey, last time I looked it was $99/mo and that only for the first year. Probably goes up afterwards.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

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Sigh. You never back down, even when you are shown that you are wrong. You are wrong and it's eating you alive. Even the title of the article in your link states: "Testing And Deployment: Making MoCA In-Home Networking Easier" and the article starts with: "Market growth and competition for enhanced video services revenue have MSOs and telcos scrambling for technology and operational advantages. In the next decade, consumer electronics with embedded Internet and IP video support will be widely available." No where does it mention a cable drop. It is a method to transmit digital data between a DVR and any TV connected to the system. Nothing more. It's no wonder you can't get a computer to run properly, when you can't even read a simple networking article like this and understand it.

Show me anywhere in that article that states a 300 foot cable TV drop is required. The word drop shows up twice and the first is part of another word:

1: "Additionally, the technician can monitor the MoCA channel for bit errors based on corrected or dropped MoCA packets." ^^^^ 2: "A drop amplifier that does not bypass the MoCA spectrum." ^^^^ This means that some installations require a bi-directional amplifier to compensate for long drops just as they always have. 'Drop Amplifier' refers to a single output CATV amplifier as opposed to the multiport CATV distribution amplifiers used in apartment complexes and condos.

Maybe in 30 years, when tiny rural systems can't find anything cheaper on the market and upgrade in bits and pieces. YOU know all about being a cheapskate.

Why should it? Why would your DVR need to talk to your refrigerator? It is strictly a streaming system for home Entertainment. It's been available here, for years. Hell, even my dad's Direct TV sat system w/DVR does it. Appliances don't need a TV tuner and other crap for a simple ethernet interface.

Computing, yes, and that's the new game in town. Cable companies

Phone and internet are delivered via a cable modem that works to -15 dBmv.

It goes a hell of a lot higher than that. That $99 doesn't get you basic cable, internet and phone here. Add on more tiers and hgher bandwith internet and it can pass $250 a month.

You are so ignorant that it's scary. Read ALL of the page you linked to and look at the images. It is a lousy home network via coax streaming media standard and nothing more. Not that I ever expect you to be man enough to admit you are wrong. Everything is always someone else's fault. No one ever does anything right but you. The fact that you design medical electronics scares the hell out of me.

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You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

It shows that you have a 6 dB slope, and the high end is 1 dBmv below the standard level. It also shows a lot of errors in the recovered data. QAM is the digital TV signal. Unscrambled channels are referred to as Clear QAM

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You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

In message , Michael A. Terrell writes

Presumably 75.25MHz is an analogue signal? In the UK, at least while the cable system has carried a mixture of analogues and digitals, the digitals have been run 10dB below the analogues. If 75.25MHz had been digital, it would be set at -5dBmV, so there would be a rising slope of

4dB, LF to HF.

In any case, if the 513MHz digital is -1dBmV, and other HF signals are similar, that is more than sufficient for a digital set-top box. I would think it should work reliably down to around -15dBmV. If I'm right, whatever the problem is, it isn't being caused by a lack of signal level.

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Ian
Reply to
Ian Jackson

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Because I am not.

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Quote "If its under 300 feet, its free to the consumer".

Yes, it is as simple as that. You are within 300ft and the cable company must serve you. This is state-of-the-art. Now you'll probably declare the whole State of Vermont to be wrong?

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

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The whole state? Na, there's probably three sane people left.

Reply to
krw

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:-)

But it's everywhere. Here is an example from South Carolina about what happens when a company wants to push through a sub-par 125ft and the city insists state-of-the-art 300ft:

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They threatened to not renew the franchise. And this was six years ago.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

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The FCC says the requirement is 100 feet in CFR 47-46.606, section three, quoted below:

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(3) The visual signal level, across a terminating impedance which
correctly matches the internal impedance of the cable system as viewed
from the subscriber terminal, shall not be less  than 1 millivolt across
an internal impedance of 75 ohms (0 dBmV). Additionally, as measured at
the end of a 30 meter (100 foot) cable drop that is connected to the
subscriber tap, it shall not be less than 1.41 millivolts across an
internal impedance of 75 ohms (+3 dBmV). (At other impedance values, the
minimum visual signal level, as viewed from the subscriber terminal,
shall be the square root of 0.0133 (Z) millivolts and, as measured at
the end of a 30 meter (100 foot) cable drop that is connected to the
subscriber tap, shall be 2 times the square root of 0.00662(Z)
millivolts, where Z is the appropriate impedance value.)
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

The sad thing is the actual state of mind, and lack of maturity of those doing it.

And they would call themselves civil.

You are not even in the same boat. Sub-humans don't get to be rated with us.

Reply to
The_Giant_Rat_of_Sumatra

Who do you mean by "us"?

Reply to
Pomegranate Bastard

My, that's a nasty cough, Nymbecile. You should think about seeing a doctor. Not for the cough but for your mental instability.

Reply to
Pomegranate Bastard

Go back to your left hand, dumbfuck.

Reply to
FatBytestard

Stop parroting things that you were told the last time you were pivot man at a circle jerk.

Reply to
JW

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