I have RG6 cable running into 3 bedrooms and the living room and then down to a 4 way splitter in the basement. I seem to get a pretty decent TV signal by hooking the ground of the splitter up to an electrical box nearby and the middle wire to a nearby gas pipe. Is this dangerous? Is there a possible better configuration? I plan on installing a roof antenna in the spring, but in the meantime, I thought I'd try this.
Thanks
I don't know what part of the country you live in but if lightening ever hits your house and backs into that cable.....Well, we'll be watching for you on the News!!
Running the ground of the splitter to the grounded electrical box is no problem, but what I don't understand is why you run the center wire to the gas pipe.
The cable should have two conductors a center lead and a braided outer cable. Both of these are connected to the antenna. By connecting the center conductor in the cable to the gas pipe are you attempting to use the gas pipe an antenna? The gas pipe should be bonded to the electrical box so in effect you are shorting the two wires together.
No danger. The gas inside the pipe can't burn without oxygen so unless you burn a hole through the pipe your safe. I watched the gas company weld a new pipe to an existing high pressure gas main full of gas and that was the explanation I got. The welding process they used was to pack a gunpowder like stuff around the joint and then they lit it off. The heat from the burning powder fused the new pipe to the old one.
If you get enough of a signal using you gas pipe then you are set. I suspect you would probably get a lot better signal from an antenna however.
Hum bug. How would the lightening get to it. Both connections are grounds (at least I assume the gas pipe is grounded). Gotta be safer than an antenna. I don't know how this works but if it does use it.
Sounds like Thermit, to me.
You are not taking into account the fact that signals in the TV portion of the radio spectrum have wavelengths in the order of a few feet, so "grounding" doesn't mean quite the same thing in that situation as it does at 60 Hz.
Reading a primer on antenna theory will make all that understandable, or just take my word for it.
Jeff
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