Newbie questions on using splitters for coax cables...

On 7/21/2012 4:04 PM PT, Gene E. Bloch typed:

I also found an used/old three ports splitter (one input + two 3.5 dB
outputs) from my goodies bag. I think I used this splitter before I got
RadioShack's five ports splitter since I got more tuners. :P Its sticker

You keep saying x ports splitter. The usual notation is (x-1)-way
splitter...

Using the conventional notation would be a kindness for your readers :-)

For example, you could, in the above paragraph, have said "two-way
splitter" instead of the clumsy "three ports splitter (one input + two
3.5 dB outputs)".

In fact, your confusing & unconventional terminology led me to write
"three-way splitter" above, although I noticed and corrected my error
before posting.

Sorry. I am still a newbie with these TV things.
--
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On 7/21/2012 1:41 PM PT, Jim Wilkins typed:

...In that photo., I wrote down its texts (RadioShack, 4 sets
(output ports); UHF, VHF, and FM; hybrid splitter combiner, and
made
in China) that I saw on it. It did not give any details like that
old RMS three ports splitter I found in my goodies bag.

If the ports are "UHF", "VHF" and "FM" then it's not the kind of
splitter you want, it's meant to combine separate UHF, VHF and FM
antenna sections which receive different frequency bands.

Well, that is what the engraved letters said on the center piece
with the ports that I showed in the blurry photo. It doesn't specify
if all ports are all three or not though.

If it is not the right splitter, then I am surprised it even gets
anything through the antenna to three TVs/tuners (one tuner is weak
with lots of drops on some channels like KTTV's 11.x channels [VHF]
though) at original home in my room with short coax cables)! I
thought they were the same for cable, satellite, and OTA video feeds
especially when they mention UHF and VHF!

So, what splitters are we supposed to get? Just for OTA only?

Maybe this will help:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/radio-spectrum.htm

"FM", "VHF" and "UHF" are bands of TV and radio frequencies. They need
antennas of different physical sizes to match their wavelengths, which
decrease as the frequency rises. VHF is the old analog channels 2-13,
or the OTA digital 7-13. UHF is all the higher TV channels, analog and
digital.

At the digital transition the government took away the lowest VHF and
highest UHF channel frequencies to sell for other uses. To avoid
consumer confusion stations pretend to use their old analog channel
number while they may actually transmit on a different frequency that
your TV finds by auto-scanning. Channels 2 through 6 are definitely on
higher frequencies. My local channel 9 went to a higher one for the
digital signal during the transition, then reverted to physical
channel 9 after they removed the analog transmitter.

Once upon a time TVs had a tuner (dial) for the original VHF channels
2-13, with government-required click stops so people wouldn't have to
fine-tune them (much), and a separate tuner (dial) for the newer UHF
channels 14-83 that tuned continuously like a radio.

The combiner you have would mix the signals from the large VHF and
separate, much smaller UHF antennas onto a single downlead, and a
second one behind the TV separated them back into connections for the
VHF tuner, the UHF tuner, and a lead to your FM radio which VHF
antennas receive. That's why it is called a combiner/splitter, it can
be used on either end.

Does that mean that's bad for OTA TV and the wrong type of splitter?
--
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other way... They look all the time at the ground and never see the
sky." --Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, Amazonian Indian (Newsweek 117(17):5, 1991)
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On 7/21/2012 11:00 AM PT, Ant typed:

...In that photo., I wrote down its texts (RadioShack, 4 sets
(output ports); UHF, VHF, and FM; hybrid splitter combiner, and made
in China) that I saw on it. It did not give any details like that
old RMS three ports splitter I found in my goodies bag.

If the ports are "UHF", "VHF" and "FM" then it's not the kind of
splitter you want, it's meant to combine separate UHF, VHF and FM
antenna sections which receive different frequency bands.

Well, that is what the engraved letters said on the center piece with
the ports that I showed in the blurry photo. It doesn't specify if all
ports are all three or not though.

If it is not the right splitter, then I am surprised it even gets
anything through the antenna to three TVs/tuners (one tuner is weak with
lots of drops on some channels like KTTV's 11.x channels [VHF] though)
at original home in my room with short coax cables)! I thought they were
the same for cable, satellite, and OTA video feeds especially when they
mention UHF and VHF!

So, what splitters are we supposed to get? Just for OTA only? There are
so many out there. Any GOOD ones from local retail stores without
ordering online (e.g., Best Buy, Walmart, Fry's Electronics, Costco,
RadioShack?(LOL))?

I hope that old RMS splitter (3 ports = 2 out + 1 in) is the correct
type to test to see if it makes any differences.

And I am back from a long day with this project/task!

Darn, that RMS splitter did NOT help so it is sounds like the coax
cables. The one in the attic is from GE (General Electrics) and NOT
RadioShack (sorry!) that was $25. FYI, I took photographs/photos. of
RadioShack's and RMS' splitters:
http://zimage.com/~ant/MiCasa2/2typesOfsplitters.jpg ... I can see how
RadioShack's 5 ports definitely made OTA signals weaker compared to RMS'
2 ports when I did in a room for testing.

HOWEVER, we did manage to get most and stable channels (even got the
missing channels like KCBS2 and stablized KTLA5) in the weak rooms with
the GE splitter (wanted to keep all rooms active since RMS didn't change
anything). I don't know why that worked. All we did was hook up a new
Samsung 55" HDTV in the family room (the strongest and stable with about
100 channels) and move that old CRT TV with Zeinth converter box into
the master bedroom (farthest room). That makes no sense. What did we do
to make them work better? Or maybe we just got lucky during the late
evening hours? Earlier in the day,
--
"It is certain that there may be extraordinary mental activity with an
extremely small absolute mass of nervous matter: thus the wonderfully
diversified instincts, mental powers, and affections of ants are
notorious, yet their cerebral ganglia are not so large as the quarter of
a small pin's head. Under this point of view, the brain of an ant is one
of the most marvelous atoms of matter in the world, perhaps more so than
the brain of a man." --Charles Darwin (from The Origin of Species, 1859)
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On 7/21/2012 7:53 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

This is definitely a VHF/UHF combiner, with description:
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...-Antenna-(UVSJ)

Yes, indeed it is. Too bad it has nothing to do with what "Ant" has -
a 1-4 splitter.

On 7/21/2012 8:27 PM PT, Gene E. Bloch typed:

Sorry, I couldn't find one with five ports, as Ant would describe it.
Maybe there aren't any :-)

Sorry, I meant to say four ports (outputs for tuners) which I said
incorrectly. I said five because it was four outputs + 1 input
(antenna). I am still a newbie with this TV stuff.
--
"When the people look like ants -- PULL. When the ants look like people
-- PRAY." --A skydiving quote
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On 7/21/2012 9:21 PM PT, UCLAN typed:

This is definitely a VHF/UHF combiner, with description:
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...-Antenna-(UVSJ)


Yes, indeed it is. Too bad it has nothing to do with what "Ant" has -
a 1-4 splitter.

Yep, I wasn't combining anything.
--
"Still we live meanly, like ants;... like pygmies we fight with
cranes;... Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify...
simplify..." --Henry Thoreau
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In article ,
Jim Wilkins wrote:

"Patty Winter" wrote in message
.. .

[unneeded quotage deleted]


Digital tuners accept both VHF and UHF on the same input.

Uh, news flash, so do analog tuners!


You could
connect either the VHF or the UHF output of the splitter to the tuner
but you won't get the channels the splitter directs to its other
output.

The splitter is sending *all* frequencies from the antenna to
*all* four outputs. Hence the legend "Input" for the antenna
and the legends "Set 1," "Set 2," "Set 3," and "Set 4" for
the outputs--any of which can be either TV or FM radio sets.


Patty

In article "Jim Wilkins" writes:

At the digital transition the government took away the lowest VHF and
highest UHF channel frequencies to sell for other uses.

Actually, they didn't take away the lowest VHF channels, though their
use is uncommon nowdays.


Once upon a time TVs had a tuner (dial) for the original VHF channels
2-13, with government-required click stops so people wouldn't have to
fine-tune them (much), and a separate tuner (dial) for the newer UHF
channels 14-83 that tuned continuously like a radio.

As I recall, the click stops were required on UHF. VHF had them from
the way back days because that was how one built frequency stable tuners
then.

Early UHF tuned like a radio dial, and later ones had discrete channels.


Alan

"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message
...
...
As a physicist with a lifelong interest in radio (inter alia) I
don't
find your discussion at all helpful in this instance.
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Fine, I'll stop wasting my time.

jsw

On 07/21/2012 10:06 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:


Sorry if I don't have a better explanation in common, intuitive terms
but electrical resonant phenomena don't relate to everyday experience.

jsw


Hey, what do I know? I'm just a simple farmer - with a degree in
electrical engineering.

TJ