Different 75 ohm ends

[jepstr67]

Hi,
New here and about 60 miles from my broadcaster.

Last summer, my mother, who has cable, had a fellow out from the cable company who was all freaked out about RF leakage. He had a little detector and he ran all over the house switching out all the connectors on my 75 ohm cable. Granted, when he was finished the whole system worked a lot better. He claimed that there is only so much signal in the wire and it it leaks out it can't go to a TV. He also said my signal booster boxes were losing a lot of signal into the air and that there is a different kind of booster as well.

So the question is, can I boost my reception on tvs distant from the antenna by using those same kind of leak resistant connectors the cable guy used at my mom's house?

Thoughts anyone?

[GroundUrMast]

The cable and connectors used by the CATV company are a also ideal for OTA systems.

The cable guy was 'freaked out' because the cable network uses frequencies that are also in use by over the air radio services including police fire and aviation. If signal leaks from the cable network, it can and does cause interference to licensed services.

Your OTA TV system only uses the frequencies assigned to the TV and FM stations so you're not at risk of causing interference.

The modern compression style connector is far more reliable than the old crimp type. The connection of the coax shield to the connector body was a weak, failure prone point for the old crimp style connector. If the shield connection fails, you get little signal through to the TV and literally leak the signal out into the air.

So the question is, can I boost my reception on tvs distant from the antenna by using those same kind of leak resistant connectors the cable guy used at my mom's house? If you have poor connections now, yes. If your existing connections are solid and secure, you wont see any improvement.

[jepstr67]

OK great. Good to know.


Thanks.