I'm thinking of installing a Freesat dish, and the cable from it would presumably need routeing through my cavity wall to the TV socket.
Firstly, I'm not sure how this is done anyway (i.e. getting the cable through to the socket from the dish), but secondly, and probably highly significantly, I have cavity wall insulation which would I would guess get in the way somewhat :-)
Anyone with experience willing to share tips? Or maybe point me at a web info source?
Thanks
Usually the cable from the dish would be surface mounted to the exterior wall and would then enter the house via hole drilled through the wall.
Do you mean run the cable down through the cavity, or simply straight through both inner and outer wall?
I can't think of any easy way to get a cable down a cavity with insulation in the way, but it needn't be much of a problem straight through....
Long drill bit and an SDS drill preferably. Drill straight through both walls and once through have someone push some smaller than the drill bit tube through - pushed tight up to the bits tip as it is removed. Poke cable end into tube, then withdraw tube complete with cable.
on 08/09/2008, Harry Bloomfield supposed :
Forgot to mention - leave a drip loop in the cable just before it comes through the wall if the cable does anything but rise up to the hole. In other words if the cable comes down the wall into the hole, bring down past the entrance then back up. It stops water being drained into the hole.
And drill the hole slightly upwards from the outside (down from the inside) so any water that does get in has to go up hill to get into the cavity.
On the tube to feed the cable through I'd leave it in. One less thing to do when you want to replace the cable. Like if you suddenly realise that if you want to watch one channel and record another you need (apart from another Freesat box) another cable to the dish. The wise would provision the hole/tube with enough capacity for 4 cables in case of future expansion. 4 cables from a quattro (or is it quad I can never remember LNB). One each for hi-band vertical polarisation, hi-Band horizontal, lo-band vertical and lo band horizontal. In the house you feed those four signals to a multi switch which allows individual sat boxes select the one they want.
The Sky+ quad LNB doesn't work like that.. each cable feeds an identical lnb and the polarisation signals are sent as required.
Who said anything about Sky?
The OP was talking Freesat and I was referring to doing a proper multi box satellite reception system with a quattro LNB and multiswitch as the reasoning behind provisioning a hole capable of carrying 4 cables.
Not very common though is it? And a bit of extra info never hurts.
On Mon, 8 Sep 2008 23:07:59 +0100 someone who may be "dennis@home" wrote this:-
However, one of these Sky gadgets can be connected to a distribution system. Like any other receiver it "thinks" it is speaking to a LNB, but in fact the multiswitch is "fooling" it. Television and (FM/DAB) radio signals can be sent down the same cable to an appropriate socket.
But why would you want to do that when using a quad (= switched) LNB avoids the cost and power consumption of a separate multiswitch? In fact octo-LNBs are now available which fit a mini-dish so you can have up to eight IF feeds (e.g. one PVR plus six plain STBs) without additional hardware.
Depends how many boxen you want to feed...
The thought of 8 cables terminated on F connectors outside squeezed on the base of an LNB stikes me as a maintence nightmare. Even on my dish which is accessable from a few steps up a ladder, there is hardly finger room to do 'em up and once a thing laye SA tape is over 'em even less. Not to mention the size of a bundle of eight cables, 4 is bad enough. Or having the distribution cables not running from a central termination cupboard where the ethernet, other RF, telephone etc is routed from.
On Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:53:02 +0100 someone who may be Andy Wade wrote this:-
At the cost of an expensive gadget sitting outside in the weather. My guess is that one of these is far more likely to fail than a much simpler gadget outside and the intelligence inside.
Each to their own.
Thanks to all for your useful responses. Looks like I do need to go straight through the wall(s), but still feel a little unhappy about routeing the cable internally, even if it was via trunking. I'd far rather it was hidden away in the wall cavity during its journey from the dish to the TV socket. But there y'go. Perhaps what I need is a little robot that'll crawl through the cavity (and insulation) to take the cable from one place to the other :-)
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