I've been running a TV in the kitchen via coax from upstairs for years. It's now stopped working. The source is a Sky decoder, or a VHS unit. Neither work. I have two cables, neither of which work. I've tried two TVs neither of which work. I've checked the cables with a multimeter and they seem fine. I've retuned the TVs and that doesn't help. What have I missed?
The source has died? Checked that there is a signal comming from either source at that source with known good TV/cable?
Do the two cables run all the way from the room with the sources in to the kitchen where the telly is? Or is it one long cable, and then at the source end you have two cables, one from the Sky and one from the VHS, going into the signle long run?
If the latter, it is possible for water to have got into the coaxial cable such that at low frequencies (i.e. DC) a mulitimeter sees a short from end to end for the inner and for the braid, and sees open circuit from the inner to the braid at each end, but at radio frequencies the water may present a sufficiently bad match for the signals not to propagate from the source end to the telly end.
Can you run a loooong length of coax down the stairs and jury-rig something, direct from the Sky box to the TV? That would then show that the Sky box etc. can drivie sufficient amplitude signals down the coax and that the TV has sufficient signal sensitivity to receive said signal, allowing for the losses in the coax (this test is an overkill but nevertheless a test - a better option would be the next step).
Have you put the telly next to the sky/VHS box and connected directly with a short patch lead, to confirm that the source is transmitting something and that the TV can receive that signal?
Let us know how you get on.
DDS
The patch lead is the obvious first thing to do but I can't find one. I'll have to go out and buy one. I can't trust either of the two long cables. Then I'll check out the other options thanks.
It seems that the output UHF channel number from the Sky box has decided to change all by itself, and one of the cables is faulty even though it checks out with a multimeter. What a bloody awful job to retune the Sony TV. I think the preset on/off button was intermittent. I really can't handle 3 faults at once. The TV is lucky to not have ended up dropping from a great height. P.S. why don't Sony (and other manufacturers) have tuning instructions for EVERY model on the Web?
LOL - typical!
Just do one job at a time, and do it slowly. Either that or chuck the sodding telly - I know how you feel.
One long shot - get some compressed air and an assistant. Blast the compressed air down the coaxial cable by removing the connectors at each end and squib the air down each of the "cells" which likely form your air-spaced coax.
The assistsaant at the other end tells you whether the air is coming out or not, and whether there's some water coming with it or similar.
If there is water causing a mismatch you might be able to fix it. Then you would need to find why / how it got in there in the first place.
DDS
I bought the cable to replace an old one that didn't seem to work very well. The old one is now working. I have two very short cables that work fine if I take the TV back upstairs. The cable is inside and there can't be water in it. If it's faulty I'll buy a new one or fix the connections.
Checking the cable for continuity took a long time, like this:
Excellent! If, during this saga, you became enraged to the point of having the strength of ten men, then you are part way towards becoming me. I find - just as you do - that the simplest of tasks confounds me, and compounds itself, many times over.
All you wanted to be able to do was watch telly. Every time I want to do a simple job, I have to go and buy the tool that's needed which means going out in the car but then I realise I haven't enough petrol to get to B&Q only to find that hte petrol station on the way is closed so I have to detour to a different one in the wrong direction and then B&Q's shut by the time I get there (or more likely out of sodding stock).
As a thought - those wireless senders *can* be OK. 20 quid from Aldi or similar - a bit of fiddling around with the channels to use (so as to avoid conflicts with wi-fi, whose band these things share). No need for co-ax and the senders often have two inputs which detect which is active - so VCR and TV can both work into one sender. Any good?
DDS
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