Sky aerial, can anyone make sense of this?

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Brendon

12 posts

Geek

#208346 7-Feb-2017 20:48

We have just moved into a new place and have taken our two sky boxes from the old house to the new. Install in the lounge was simple as one coax cable in the AV cupboard was labelled "sky". Now I want to get sky working in the upstairs lounge which has a TV aerial outlet, I have used adapters to hook up the Sky box but it doesn't pick up a signal. Problem is I don't even know if the sky dish connection has been split out to the other TV outlets in the house.

Is anyone able to decipher how it's been wired from the below images and let me know what I need to do to get a sky signal to the upstairs lounge?

Don't really want to get a man in if I can help it.

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1716802 7-Feb-2017 21:03

My guess would be, looking at the second picture with the small two-way splitter, the two cables that just have a straight-through joiner in them (and don't touch the splitter at all) would be the Sky Satellite link being sent directly to a specific outlet.

Someone more knowledgeable will be able to say, but I am pretty sure to distribute the sky with the terrestrial stuff is you first need to combine the aerial input with the satellite input using a diplexer (or maybe its called a multiplexer). The diplexer has two "In's" and one "Out", so you then send the "Out" through the splitter and then you have satellite and terrestial available at all the points in the house.

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Brendon

12 posts

Geek

#1716804 7-Feb-2017 21:08

Cheers, I will test that by disconnecting and see if the signal drops out.

Brendon

12 posts

Geek

#1716871 7-Feb-2017 21:59

You were correct, disconnecting the single coax to coax join stopped the sky feed in the lounge.

Any ideas what I need to do to get the sky aerial to run through the splitter? I only need it to work in the downstairs and up stairs lounges if that makes it easier?

Cheers

ObidiahSlope

260 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1716908 7-Feb-2017 22:46

If you are in a Freeview terrestrial area with marginal signal or dodgy aerial cables etc it is well worth getting a professional aerial installer.

Things he/she might do;

Install a high gain aerial in the proper location.

Use a signal strength meter to point your aerial in the precise direction of the strongest signal.

Install a pre-amp at the mast head to reduce signal loss in the house wiring.

Install RG6 cable to minimise signal loss in the house wiring.

Install the proper splitter boxes and wall plugs.

Obsequious hypocrite

Brendon

12 posts

Geek

#1716913 7-Feb-2017 22:51

Thanks but I'm not interested in free view, just the sky connections.

Cheers

kiwirock

681 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1716953 8-Feb-2017 04:05

Are you running two sky boxes, or one (moving it room to room)?

You need a 2 output (1 input) splitter that does power pass from the 'in' to both 'out' ports so each decoder can power up the LNB on the dish without the other having to be on. It also needs to be good for up to 2000MHz. This is if you are using two decoders.

You then need to just feed those two to the living room cables (when you figure out which two they are).

The existing cables need to be RG6 to the living rooms. Older RG59 has a lot of loss at the higher frequencies involved from the LNB to the decoder. This should be printed on the cables.

Make sure your decoder is 'off' when pulling open or closing cable connectors. You don't want to accidentally short the 12/18 Volt's DC from the decoder if the plug's centre pin comes in contact with anything metal such as the splitter.

Ideally, you want F connectors on the wall outlets not the older style PAL connectors in your photo. But if you have an f connector to PAL adapter, it's a poor man's fix. But there'll be signal loss, how much depends how open the wiring is on the back of the socket. Normally you want a male F on the cable behind the socket going through an F female to female adaptor on the socket. This keeps everything nicely shielded. Then you need an F male to F male pigtail to the decoder.

So unless you have the tools to put a new F male on the cable behind the wall outlet socket and can get the correct f-female to f female socket insert for the wall outlet brand, then I wouldn't really bother trying to jimmy up a PAL socket. It could cause more problems than good. If, the cable is RG6 already.

Cheers.

Brendon

12 posts

Geek

#1716973 8-Feb-2017 08:38

Thanks, the cables are RG6.

Can anyone recommend a good installer in Christchurch that could sort this?

vexxxboy

4235 posts

Uber Geek

#1716977 8-Feb-2017 08:41

sorry confused , are you still paying Sky for use of boxes if so why arent they installing them free of charge.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Brendon

12 posts

Geek

#1716981 8-Feb-2017 08:43

I assumed they would charge for this and wanted to try and sort myself but I will give them a call and see if they can sort.

Brendon

12 posts

Geek

#1716994 8-Feb-2017 09:17

Sky installer coming out tomorrow, initially thought I could save myself the hassle of having to get someone in but I'll give in this time, thanks for all your help.

MikeAqua

7769 posts

Uber Geek

#1717116 8-Feb-2017 11:04

If you don't care about freeview you could reuse the splitter that currently doing freeview to distribute sky.

If you want sky in some rooms and freeview in others you could buy a second splitter and use some of the existing free view cabling for sky.

Sky cables usually terminate on f-type connectors you may need to change the freeview outlets to f-type connectors or buy a socket adaptor or a 75-ohm to f-type cable.

Mike

wingbat45

233 posts

Master Geek

#1717968 9-Feb-2017 22:00

vexxxboy:

sorry confused , are you still paying Sky for use of boxes if so why arent they installing them free of charge.

Standard relocation fee of $50.