Satellite dish cable connection

WatlingA5

New Member
Ever since we moved here, we've had "LNB Short" notices pop up from time to time when we changed channels. We ended up checking all the coax cable fittings and found something I'd always understood should never, ever be done. Each one had one strand of the copper mesh touching the core. Not just touching, but wound - ever so neatly - round the core.

It's been done so neatly we needed an optician's eyeglass to make sure we were not imagining it.

I accept that things may have changed since I was mucking about with aerial leads in the 70s but, being a somewhat cynical person, can't help thinking the local trader who fitted the quad LNB to the dish and the wall sockets was setting up a bit of follow-up work on a "mystery problem that might take a while to fix".

If anyone can confirm that he was doing it right, and that I'm wrong, I'll make my apologies now :)
 
can't help thinking the local trader who fitted the quad LNB to the dish and the wall sockets was setting up a bit of follow-up work on a "mystery problem that might take a while to fix".
Yes, I would agree with that. There are no circumstances in which you would ever do this. I'm amazed it worked at all as well. Can't have been a very good 'short'.
 
I suppose the strand could have been 'ever so neatly' wound around the core by the action of screwing on the F connector. But twice?????
 
Couple of pictures.... As the cable was when we opened up the wall socket. We had similar problems with the aerial lead to the Toppy 5800

First time I've posted pix on this forum, so not sure this will work...
 

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Thank you - that confirms what we thought then. Satellite-man was the first tradesman we encountered after moving here, but we've since found and used several reliable tradesmen who then recommend reliable people in other trades. As one said: "This is a small town. Word quickly gets round about anyone who does a bad job."

As well as sorting the dodgy wiring to the satellite box pictured, we invested in factory-made leads to make the connections to Hummy and Toppy. It may be our imagination, but we seem to be getting better picture and sound on both. We'd almost given up on the Humax because we couldn't rely on it and the Topfield had been exhibiting occasional dropouts that we'd blamed on the broadcasters :oops:
 
It's your imagination. Aside from any blocks/spats/dropouts etc., it either works perfectly or it doesn't work at all. The picture/sound quality will be the same as before when it was working.
 
I guess I should qualify my previous post with "...unless you are magazine reviewer of course, when there will be all sorts of differences that you attribute to some high priced product that you're trying to push and which actually achieves nothing special".
 
Thank you - that confirms what we thought then. Satellite-man was the first tradesman we encountered after moving here, but we've since found and used several reliable tradesmen who then recommend reliable people in other trades. As one said: "This is a small town. Word quickly gets round about anyone who does a bad job."

As well as sorting the dodgy wiring to the satellite box pictured, we invested in factory-made leads to make the connections to Hummy and Toppy. It may be our imagination, but we seem to be getting better picture and sound on both. We'd almost given up on the Humax because we couldn't rely on it and the Topfield had been exhibiting occasional dropouts that we'd blamed on the broadcasters :oops:

You should have made your own using WF100 double screened satellite grade cable, fitted f connectors and suitable Belling Lee screw on convertors.
 
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