Still Tweaking

The bedroom TV has been giving us problems for some time. It requires a very strong signal coming into the RV to get it to work. The park here has cable but it has a very low signal strength from being split so many times. The front TV works quite well although a bit grainy but the rear TV with an extra 60 feet or so of wire is not so good. It will not receive some of the lower end channels. I remember dealing with this problem in Mexico last winter but forgot what I had done.

While downtown yesterday I picked up a 19 dB video amplifier and wired it in this morning. When I opened the wooden cabinet under the TV I discovered that I had already put an amplifier in the circuit that I had bought in Mexico. It was however, only 15 dB so I replaced it with the more powerful amplifier. This did the trick and the rear TV is now the same quality as the front, a little grainy but receiving all the channels.

This indicates to me that something else might be wrong that I have not yet discovered and that I am only treating the symptom. I recently bought a new TV distribution box but have not yet installed it. It is not an easy task as the new box is a little larger than the old one and the cutout in the cabinet will have to be enlarged. I have all the tools to do this so it might be something I will tackle in Mexico. If that does not solve the problem I will have to look at replacing the cable that goes from the distribution box to the rear TV. I bought a tool to put proper ends on co-ax cables today so I will also be able to shorten some of the cables inside the cabinet and reduce the cable length by 15 or 20 feet. This is due to the fact that the shortest pre-made cables I can buy are 6 feet long and I have used several of them to connect various components where shorter cables would have been better.

In the meantime. I will install the surplus 15 dB amp in the outside bin where the cable entrance is located. This will give the incoming signal an additional boost and should get rid of the graininess. It is an ongoing project but everything I do now should make a positive difference. Stay tuned...