Does the aerial pass-through have the same signal loss as a simple splitter?

mike_m

Active Member
I have 2 HDR Fox T2’s daisy-chained, with a TV at the end. I’m considering adding a HomeRun box to the chain, but since it doesn’t have RF pass-through, I’ll have to use a splitter after the second Hummy. If the pass-through is acting like a simple splitter, I suppose I'll only have a 12.5% signal on the TV and the HomeRun box.

So my question is, have I already lost some signal on the way through the hummies, or do they ‘bump up’ the signal to full strength?
 
There's a bit of amplification in them. Daisy-chaining often causes problems though, especially as the chain gets longer, so it is often better to split passively upstream anyway.
Success of that depends how much signal you have to start with - you may need a small in-line amplifier (e.g. 9dB), ideally nearer the aerial than the splitter.
 
Thanks for the info! My signal's pretty good (4m line-of-sight from Hannington) so I'll try it with a splitter and look at signal levels on the TV. This is only an experiment anyway, to try out Lc200's DVROnTime software - his EPG looks so elegant, I couldn't resist!
 
Dead right your signal is good, I'm surprised the input circuits haven't fried.
Sometime in the early 80s when I was employed* designing security alarm panels and associated detectors I took a call from a BBC (IIRC) transmitter engineer. They wanted to protect an old transmitter hall that now only routed the cables from the new one up the mast so RF rejection was an issue. So I asked what kind of field strength. "A few hundred volts per metre."
* Munford & White if anyone was involved in the industry.
 
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