couple of tv’s dont work in the house, never have, so ive just been in the loft to see if i can work out why.

looks like theres 2 tv aerial leads coming down from roof, 2 cables split from one, another 2 from the other. all of them just wrapped round each other with black tape rather than proper junctions. so one aeriel doesn work for whatever reason. shouldnt be a prob as long as ones good yep?

ive worked out which cable is the ‘good one’, so have disconnected the others and have tried wrapping the copper ends around the good one. now none of them will get a good signal 😀

what have i done wrong? (no clever answers about not getting the experts in please) 😀

if the two ends are wrapped around each other, shouldnt i get a decent signal now?? as soon as they touch should there be a signal, as soon as theyre apart no signal? isnt it as simple as that?

thanks for any advice.

ive worked out which cable is the ‘good one’, so have disconnected the others and have tried wrapping the copper ends around the good one. now none of them will get a good signal

what have i done wrong? (no clever answers about not getting the experts in please)
If I was to guess I’d say you didn’t pick the right one to disconnect!

Edit# If you need my credentials I once cut the wrong cable and knocked the phones out to our new office for 4 days.

no its the right one, as theres a pixellated picture now, but certainly not as good as before i ‘unwound’ them to start again. some channels sort of ok, some nothing, so its ‘trying’.

Sorry if it’s a daft question and I’m insulting you, but you do know it’s a co-axial cable?

We had a bloke come to fit an aerial once, very professional, but couldn’t get the tv to work. Phones the office to be told the transmitter was down. How we laughed.

Sorry if it’s a daft question and I’m insulting you, but you do know it’s a co-axial cable?

its not a daft question, its not insulting me, i do know its co-ax, but i dont know the relevance of why you ask that. which is probably why its not a daft question 😀

the right answer all the time was………. call the experts ;-D

rang the local electronics shop, bloke was extremely helpful, told me exactly what i needed, supplied it, connected some of the cables for me, drew pics and showed me exactly how to connect the rest. i was happy to pay him £40 for it. apparently if id carried on i wouldnt have had a good enough signal to supply 4 TV’s, so i needed a booster. no power in loft so he supplied some sort of box that takes power from ring main downstairs, sends it up to another connection box in the loft that has my one input and 4 ouput cables in, and now all TVs work.

the lesson is….support your local craftsmen 😀

thanks for all your advice chaps.

Couldn’t provide a list of what bits you bought could you? I have similar issue. Aerial is spilt two ways but ideally need it three or four ways so need a splitter and booster (I don’t have power in loft either).

certainly mate.

both items are by Vision

this and this.

also youll need extra bits of cable (power supply to tv, and power supply to aerial socket in room) plus all the relevant end connectors.

hope that helps.

I did the same a few years back. Surprisingly easy once I got my head round how it all worked.

There are a load of guides on http://www.aerialsandtv.com/planningyourinstall.html to help you work it out. They were really helpful on the phone in answering a few questions too, so bought the bits i needed from them too. Reception improved overall, with 4 working points in the house.

Thanks both although still confused by Sadexpunk!!

Why the need for power cable to tv and aerial socket in room?

Aerial is in loft and needs splitting. Amplifier and power pack need installing up there with the power pack being fed off the ring main somehow. The aerial then splits to the aerial points in each room so cable required for that but why the power to the tv etc?

the power isnt to the tv, i believe it goes back up the cable to boost whats up in the loft (because theres no power in the loft for a booster).

my set up is…… the power pack near the tv, plugged into mains, and also to aerial socket in the wall. aerial lead from power supply to tv.

one input aerial and 4 splitter cables all going into that junction box.

and thats it. the power supply near tv is for the aerials in loft as theres no power up there to power a booster. he explained if it didnt work, to take aerial socket off wall and look to see if theres a capacitor on the cicuit board behind it, as if so, theyre designed to stop current going up the cable. which is actually what we want it to do, so id have had to change it for one without a capacitor for £1.99.

but…..it worked, so obviously the current is travelling up and boosting it. dont really understand it myself but thats what im thinking he meant 🙂

hope thats clearer.

No power in loft? Just tap into the lighting circuit. It’s only a low power amp. IANA part P qualified E