Boosting existing TV, Sky and DVD signals around the house - how?

[deano]

Here's the scenario...

Lived at current address for about 10 years. Previous owner installed a Wickes doobrey (in loft) that fed UHF signal to 3 bedrooms plus UHF and FM signal to downstairs lounge. Whilst having Sky digital installed some 4-5 years ago, fitters said that, for =A390 cash, they could re-jig the setup to allow all 3 bedrooms to receive same satellite signal as currently being received by the decoder in the lounge and also pick up the signal from the DVD that was also in the lounge, as well as receiving the usual terrestrial channels. This was all possible by using existing cabling and without the need to run new wires.

At the time, I left them to it and, as it all worked perfectly, had no reason to study what they'd done.

Now, however, I am converting the garage into a playroom for the kids and the co-ax cables for the above system will be sealed away when the room gets plastered.

As TV, sky and DVD signals would be of great use in this room, I obviously wanted to tap into the feed and split the signal to a point in the garage.

It appears that to achieve the above, the fitters simply installed an amplifier in the loft in the UHF feed to the lounge. From there, they made connections such that the UHF, sky and DVD signal were then sent back up and distributed to the bedrooms. All signals use the same, single co-ax cable.

In the garage, I have tapped into this multi-feed co-ax and split it off to the TV point in that room. This works as it did before and can still be received in the bedrooms as well as the new, additional point in the garage.

However, I have noticed that, while all 5 terrestrial channels are excellent signals, the signal for Sky at these points is not quite so good!

Although it may be unorthodox for these signals to share the same cable, I was wondering if there was any way I could boost the Sky signal when it leaves the decoder, so that a better picture could be obtained?

Can anybody knowledgeable in this area offer up some suggestions? Would a secondary UHF amplifier, installed at this location, improve the sky signal? Or is there a sky specific amp that would single out that frequency and boost it, via standard UHF co-ax and without detriment to the other terrestrial signals?

Sorry for the long post... I always try and keep it brief but worry about not providing enough details!

Thanks for any help.

rgds, Dean.

[Set Square]

How many outputs has your Wickes doobrey got? If it's got a spare one, you need to take a cable from that to your new room. If it hasn't got a spare, you can share one of the existing outputs *providing* you use another amplifier - don't just split it. You just need a small amplifier with one input and two outputs.

[deano]

How would that improve the sky signal?

That's the only one that is a little poor in quality on all sets throughout the house (apart from where the decoder is actually located).

The sky signal is added to the feed as it comes out of the back of the decoder. This then gets sent around the house to the other sets and I am "breaking into" this feed at a point in the garage "before" it reaches the other sets upstairs.

I thought I might be able to amplify the sky signal as is comes out the back of the decoder and before it goes off to feed the upstairs.

Thanks, Dean

[tarquinlinbin]

You cant just "tap in" to signals that are distributed in this way. People think its just like tapping into a lighting circuit to pick up a feed for a new light but it isnt. You are dealing with radio frequency signals at uhf and the proper devices need to be used for splitting/distribution of those signals if signal quality is not to suffer. Therfore you cannot just tee in using a y shaped splitter.

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[deano]

so what CAN I do?

[Set Square]

Well, you could start by reading what you have already been told. To save you delving into the archives, I wrote THIS a couple of days ago:

"How many outputs has your Wickes doobrey got? If it's got a spare one, you need to take a cable from that to your new room. If it hasn't got a spare, you can share one of the existing outputs providing you use another amplifier - don't just split it. You just need a small amplifier with one input and two outputs."

THAT is what you can do!

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Provide some context?

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Not quite the thing. A typical d/a has outputs of 8-10dB up. Therefore a good splitter (3.5dB) will not even be noticed. The extra noise of another amplifier is more likely to lead to overload.

[Set Square]

Well, since you're in that line of business, I have to bow to your superior wisdom. All I can say is that I've *done* it - and it works, in my case - at any rate.

[deano]

Set Square...

I did read your post and appreciated your response. My short response of "so what CAN I do?" was aimed at the rather unhelpfull response from tarquinlinbin.

However, if YOU had fully read my original post, you would have understood that I was not modifying cable runs, but merely had the opportunity in the garage, to 'break into' the coax feed for the rest of the house, once it came out of the back of the main sat decoder and had that satellite signal added to it.

My question was if there was ANY WAY by which I could boost the sat signal being piped through this cable, while the terrestrial signals were fine. I do not want to start running cables as these are already exisiting in the walls.

I have since discovered that there are specialist amps available which would boost the higher frequency sky signal whilst leaving the lower freq tv signals as they are.

So, try practising what you preach.

deano.

[deano]

Andy, Hi.

To re-iterate my initial post... Currently, TV and Sat signals are fed to upstairs bedrooms via standard coax which existed when I moved in so I have no idea how good it is. The TV signal in the bedrooms is very good although the satellite signal is slightly poor. I am adding a 3rd point in my garage, by breaking into the coax that feeds the bedrooms. Having done this, I still get a good TV signal throughout, but again, the sat signal is noisy. (It is perfect on the lounge tv, which is where the decoder is located). Thus, it would appear that the cable run length and cable quality, of the standard UHF coax, which this signal gets piped through, along with the UHF signal to the rest of the house, is adding noise to the sky signal.

What can I therefore do, to amp this signal up and improve the satellite picture in the garage and bedrooms, without affecting the already perfect TV signal supplied by this same cable?

I have been studying the SatCare website and while it appears that there may be a device which I could plug into the mains and attach to the coax cable as it emerges from the back of the sat decoder and will only boost the high freq sky signals while leaving the lower range tv signals as they are, I am not quite sure which product to buy and/or if I have misread the information supplied within the site's catalogue!

Does your professional knowledge and experience bring to mind a suitable device that would satisfy my needs?

Please ask if you need more specific details/info. TIA

deano.