Our current TV aerial offers absolutely no analogue reception. I am therefore thinking of replacing the aerial and the cable.
I am OK with the aerial part, but what's the best way to thread the new cable through the house without having to chase out all the walls?
Advice from anyone who's done this before would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Ian
As my gas fire was off the stack at the time, I dropped a new length down the chimney and drilled through the side of it and fed it through, although not all houses have chimneys. :-)
Could you not bring it down the outside wall, and drill a small hole for it?
That's how most are done.
Ian Waddell formulated on Wednesday :
Assuming a two storey house and a chimney mounted antenna ....
Bring the cable into the loft area under the roof tiles and fit a plug and socket joint there to allow for easy future repair. Leave a loose loop down, before passing under tiles and you might need to provide some additional protection to the cable against the tiles.
From loft down into the airing cupboard to 1st floor level. Then it becomes more difficult... You might look for a route following that of any boxed in pipes.
If a chimney is completely disused, you might be able to drop the cable down that, direct to ground floor.
TV antenna installers tend to just drop the cable down the roof, then down an outer wall. Which tends not to last very long due to wind flexing and UV damage to cable.
Define very long. I think thats a bit of a wild statement to make. Tv cable can last years. I agree with the uv bit with regard to white cable, but black or brown will not be attacked so easily. The vast majority of tv aerial installations are run down the outside wall as are sat dish installations, its a lot easier and time is money.
Dave
In message , Ian Waddell wrote
Consider also that you may want digital television from your aerial and it is recommended that the aerial down-lead has full _copper_ screening. A CAI approved satellite cable should be used.
You may find that in your installation that a cable with a foam dielectric is better than one with a semi-air spaced dielectric as it will be less susceptible to performance degradation due to damage caused by crushing or (tight) bending.
Unless you're in a strong signal area I really can't recommend a superfluous joint in this cable with all it's inherent loss and unreliability.
Agreed a cheap satellite cable, with it's extra foil screen, usually has a lower loss than most TV cables. However they are not designed to flex as much. Obviously not a problem if terminated at a socket in the wall.
Cheap satellite cable is unapproved and is likely to cause problems in a digital installation. Use CAI EN50117 cable for everything now. Cheap cable has no real use anymore.
In message , Fred writes
What sort of loss could be expected from such an arrangement?
None as far as I can see? its no different than the usual box on the living room wall and extending the cable. however if he was to buy an 18 element aerial to get fringe areas this will be a greater reception more so than a 8 element aerial
I have done two things here, for rooms that have been replastered I have chased them in, for others that were replastered before the coax wiring I have run them outside. My house has solid walls.
I have a loftbox setup where my sat,tv and fm feeds go into the loft and are distributed out to each room by either dropping through the ceiling or running the cable out the loft via a hole in the wall.
HTH
Cheers
Richard
It may be unapproved but if you look at the spec they are better for attenuation at terrestrial frequencies. It would be important for long runs. Lots are things are unapproved. Can you give a reason why it shouldn't be used? Apart from it being unapproved.
Probably equivalent to a few directors on the aerial. I have seen but don't the figures. I would recommend against any joints wherever possible.
That is not the case. EN50117 has the minimum loss across the band, with superior screening and minimum impedance variation.
Nasty dielectric. Nast aluminium foil / copper braid (sparse) mix. No quality control between batches. EN50117 spec is policed and in fact we were notified that one manufacturer has lost their approval.
In message , Fred wrote
The extra screening in satellite quality cable (with a full copper screen) is recommended to reduce the effects of interference from passing vehicles and/or household electrical equipment switching that can cause digital reception to break up.
Fred expressed precisely :
I would not recomend it in a fringe signal area, but other wise the losses would be negligable.
The internal section tends to have several times the life of the cable and antenna outside in the weather, hence my suggestion to provide a joint as above. The joint can also have the effect of preventing moisture being conducted all the way down the length of the cable too.
dave stanton submitted this idea :
No where near as long as it would if installed in a protected environment.
The vast majority of _replacement_ antenna systems are run down the outside wall to keep installation costs low and for no better reason.
The vast majority of satellite dishes are placed in the easiest, quickest place the installer can fit them and for some reason I cannot quite fathom, the installers think the dishes have to be as high as possible from the ground to work well.
The vast majority of phone cables where they come from a pole are run down the outside wall.
It is nothing to do with aesthetics, long life or reliability, but cost.
Our phone cable and TV antenna cable (installed down the walls) used to fail due to weather damage every few years. Since I moved them indoors
20 years ago we have suffered not one single failure and we do not have any untidy cables flapping about loose on the walls.Our dish is located just six feet from the ground, completely hidden from view and is well sheltered from the weather. Only a couple of feet of this cable is exposed to the weather.
If the OP wants to devote a little of his time to making a better job of the installation, then more power to his elbow.
I never said it was !!. I was in the aerial trade for a while, costs are everything.
Dave
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