Aerial/co-ax cable

Posted by: Reginald Halliday on 05 May 2005

I currently use 'bog standard' co-ax cable into my digibox. I recently saw, in one of the glossies, someone (not sure who but it may have been QED) advertising a terminated length of co-ax à la 'proper' interconnect.
Does anyone have any experience of such a product, and if so is there an improvement of picture quality to warrant the investment?

Regards,

Reginald
Posted on: 07 May 2005 by custard
Reg
before you start to pay out loads of dosh try making your own places like Maplins sell a better quality low loss cable suitable for ariel use etc.
Posted on: 07 May 2005 by Steve2701
Reg,
If your digigox is from a sky dish it should be wired in the triple screened (usually black sheathed) coax. This is about as good as you can get in standard connection cable, and it is loads better than the old single screened (usually brown sheathed) stuff. Is your termination to a box in the wall and you are looking for a better lead from it to your tv for this, or is an incoming lead for 'cable' tv?
Posted on: 12 May 2005 by Reginald Halliday
Thanks for your replies. Apologies, I should have referred to my (Nokia) 'freeview' box rather than digibox. I have a socket on my wall, from which the brown coax cable feeds the Nokia. As I have a length of the black cable (thinner than the coax and stiff) from a disused analogue sky box, do you think it would be worth lopping off the current connector and fitting a coax plug?
Posted on: 13 May 2005 by Steve2701
[QUOTE] [I have a socket on my wall, from which the brown coax cable feeds the Nokia. As I have a length of the black cable (thinner than the coax and stiff) from a disused analogue sky box, do you think it would be worth lopping off the current connector and fitting a coax plug?/QUOTE]

Reg,
If the black cable you have is the triple screened stuff (it should be if its ex-sky) Easy to tell when you peel back the black coating, there should be a loose 'braid' of copper screen, and a solid foil of copper screen as well.
If you can fit the coax terminals to this ( take the time & effort to get some real good quality ones) then yes, it should be a much better lead than the 'brown' one you currently use.
Various other manufactures do ready made ones.. qed etc, might be worth a look?
Posted on: 14 May 2005 by Reginald Halliday
Many thanks, Steve. Here goes a test of my soldering skills. Eek
Posted on: 20 May 2005 by Rowegroup
Found out recently how much difference the coax used makes. We have an ariel point in the lounge and in the bedroom, both fed from the same distribution point in the loft. Only problem: good picture in lounge, very poor picture in bedroom! Had a chap some to look at it - he replaced the cable from the loft to bedroom with some 'proper' stuff and voila, perfect picture. He did some measurements and reckoned we were loosing 10dB of signal in the cable run!!