HD Cable

From another thread I was told it's not important to change out the RG-59 with RG-6Q. 

Well that's certainly good news, as I have coax both in the basement and in the ceiling.  I had a CB that I thought was broken once, and the CB repair place just replaced the Coax and it was good to go.  He said many times the problems with radios are cheap coax.  That's another reason I was thinking coax made sense, when the kid at Best Buy recommended it.

The cable in the roof, goes to the splitter. 

The cable in the basement goes to the TV in the bedroom. 

The red light on the splitter, was on when I had TV, and now I have Pixelated TV in the same spot and the red light is still on. 
I should have taken a picture of it, but the cable coming out of the ceiling goes to the splitter (that looks similar to electrical socket, it's black and has a circuit board in the back, and a red light on the front and says Winguard.) 

From that the cable goes to a black device (I call a selector) that switches from Aux, Cable, Sat, etc. 

When I disconnected the cable and put another cable attached to a separate antenna (not attached to the MH) to it, the red light went out.  I got some channels, but they were pixelated. 

What I broke on my antenna is the crank gear, so that it no longer goes up when cranked.  So when I get the new antenna I thought that would be a good time to replace the cable as well, replacing cable would be a major undertaking, when done right.

This is in a 99 Winnebago Adventurer, as my name suggests.

Do you think it may be my splitter? 

Thanks.

Depends on how long the runs are, what the signal strength is that you are starting with (coming into the coach), how well shielded everything is, the quality of the splitter(s), and if there is any "leaks" and/or unused runs from the splitter(s). RG59 has less shielding, and more resistance - so you'll need to start with a better signal coming into the coach. You might be able to put in a cable tv amplifier at the most upstream point - but only as a last resort. I would focus on ensuring the quality and the integrity of the shielding of your connections, first. If you have any unused runs, then cap them off at the splitter with a terminator. This will boost the signal to tvs that are actually using the feed. The 12VDC antenna amplifier only works for off the air. If everything works fine with a good cable connection - then everything should work once you fix your antenna. If the power light on the antenna amplifier is not on, then you might have a bad 12V power connection to it, or a burnt fuse (or, in my case... a "touchy" switch that I need to wiggle just right).


Mylo

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Steve

Your first mistake is calling the device you call a "Splitter" a Splitter.  It is so much more than that.

Your second mistake was conneting a non-winegard antenna to it (Ok, the King Controls JACK antella should work with it too)

Here is why...

The box you call a splitter does, in fact, perform that service, but it is also a source selector (Cable/Antenna is the normal options) and. this is the important part A POWER SUPPLY.  The rooftop antenna contain what is called a Mast Head Pre-amp (Active electronics in the housing in the middle of the antenna)

Your passive antenna (NON-Winegard) Appeared to the power supply as a dead short, and thus, it blew a fuse.

There MAY be a fuse on the back of the wall plate (I do not remember)

but it is more likely you blew the fuse that feeds it.. Happy hunting 


Once you find the fuse (And replace it) You might cojnsider repalcign that wall palte with the Winegard Sensar Pro... I did, very happy now.

Yes, John, I was planning on taking your advice from the Antenna thread. 
Batwing
Wingman
and Sensor Pro.  And now I know what the Sensor Pro replaces. 

I'm just learning as I go here.  Once I get the Front TV working again, I'm going to shorten the Bedroom run to just behind the passenger seat, take out that chair and replace it with a big screen.  In my mind, I can make both TV's work at the same time so I can watch two games at once.

I don't need or use a TV in a bedroom.  I only go there to sleep.

2 games at once... Well, with my current set up I have two DVR's plus a TV with pause (Still have not figured out to fast forward though).. So I guess I should not talk ..
But that said. I'm not a sports fan.

Hi Ho:  I didn't notice this thread earlier, but will make some technical comments anyway.  Lou has it mostly right.  Any signal that is received depends on having a particular S/N (signal to noise ratio) to give acceptable quality.  If the noise is simply KTB or Gaussian or ambient noise then this ratio is establilshed by the strength of the incoming signal and the bandwidth the signal occupies.    Once this ratio is established by amplification further signal loss is not important.  So what this means is that loss before the signal is amplified is very critical and loss after substantial amplification is unimportant.  For example, when receiving over-the-air (non satellite) signals, with loss from the antenna to the preamplifier every dB of loss decreases the S/N by that amount.  However, signal loss after amplification by the LNB (Block down converter) at the satellilte antenna is relatively unimportant.  So generally speaking a few dB loss in the coaxial cable doesn't make any measurable difference.

With old analog TV signals shielding was important because undesired signals could be added by leakage into the coax cable.  Along with multipath reception from reflections these signals resulted in "ghosts" and the picture was not sharp.  Multipath is relatively unimportant for digital reception either over-the-air or by satellite.

The only exception to this is if the amount of loss begins to approach the amount of gain preceding the loss.  Say an LNB has 40 dB gain, then more than about 15 or 20 dB would be objectionable.    This would take a lot of really crappy cable at L-band (the frequency out of the LNB).  Or it could be cable that was damaged, for example by cutting the braid.

Well, I'm sure that very few are interested in this info, but what it really means is that crappy cable from the LNB to the receiver probably doesn't make any difference.  However, crappy cable from the VHF or especially UHF antenna does matter.