How would you split a coax cable at the end?

[miamicuse]

I have a cable feed that comes down the wall into a junction box.

Inside the junction box now I have a Cat5 cable, and four speaker cables and a coax cable. They are pretty cramped in there and I used a 12 (6x2) port moular face plate. The four speaker lines occupied 8 ports, the coax one more, the cat5 one more, so a total of 10 ports are used and two blank ports.

Initially I had the coax cable feed into the VCR then from VCR another coax run to TV. I would like to feed directly into the TV and VCR (since it makes a difference in quality). I want to also be able to record TV programs.

The easiest way to do this without having to run another coax wire back to the attic is to split the signal. I have a good quality 2 to 1 splitter. The question is, I want to avoid attaching the splitter to the current coax port then run two cables. I would prefer to use one more port and have two coax cable outlets.

To do this I have to squeeze the splitter into the box and have two have short cable run from the splitter to the port inside the box. The wires will need to be bent and I don't think there is a way to do this with the room that is available. I am not sure it's a good idea to have a coax cable

1" in length and twisted and bent?

Any idea how to solve this problem?

MC

[Amun]

Not really sure why you don't want the splitter outside, but I assume its just aesthetics.

You may be able to just remove the existing coax connecter from the plate and actually mount the splitter so the two outlets stick through the plate through a few newly drilled holes.

AMUN

[miamicuse]

Yes it is for aesthetics.

I cannot drill new holes in the face plate. Right now I have ten wires coming through the box using one of these modular twelve port face plates:

[alienz]

You could spend hours cussing and squeezing and twisting and flexing coax connectors and cables and try to wedge everything into too tight a space, or you could just climb into your attic, split the cable, drop the additional cable to the outlet box and be done with it. Or, simply run a length of cable from the junction box, and attach the splitter somewhere out of sight, close to your video components. That would be my choice.

Mike

[ameijers]

90-degree type F. I use them often, for when the TV outlet is behind furniture, to avoid kinking the coax.

aem sends...

[Amun]

okay, that still leaves you two "blanks"

plug in the blank fillers, and drill holes that match/line up with the splitter outlets, spin on a few thin nuts and it will look as good as a factory job. You might want to see how standard wall plate cable hookups are constructed to get an idea.

But I still think you are making this too complicated, as you are still going to have two coax wires to deal with instead of one.

AMUN

[Paul Franklin]

Why not put another old work box next to the one you have and move some of the stuff plus the splitter to that one. You can use an extra deep box and once you cut the hole for it, you can reach in to move some lines over.

[ktcoors]

if you split the signal with a splitter you will lose more signal than if you ran it to the vcr and then to the tv. if you are really bent on have two lines then you could hide the splitter behind the vcr or the tv. the appearance will be that you are running the cable to the vcr and then the tv. no different then you had before. if you have a line in the room already there really isn't a need to run another line from the attic as you will end up with the same signal. if you really want the splitter behind with wall just cut out the bottom or back of your box. coax shouldn't be in a box anyway. with an RG6 coax line you should not bend the cable more than a 3" radius. It can damage the cable now or down the road. hope this helps

the cable guy