Re: 2-way splitter - which brand is good?
Adam H. Kerman
>I need some 2-way coax splitters and have been told that the stuff at
>walmart is junk, and the same for radio shack and the hardware stores.
>So what is a good brand to get? I was told to look for one with 3.5dB
>or less insertion loss per leg, frequency response up to 1000 MHz, and
>one where the back is soldered on rather than glued on, etc. I'm
>confused. Any tips?
Comcast hands them out over the counter at any office at which you can
pick up equipment, if you're not too far away.
Typically, low-voltage stuff for coax and telephone is made in China.
It's all crap, unless it works correctly. There are no quality brands.
All they do is slap a brand name label onto the item. If you happen
to get a decent item one time, the next time you need to buy the same
item, it'll be imported from a different factory.
Coax D-connectors take a 5/8 in wrench. Buy a small one if you don't
already own one. It's best to tighten a bit tighter than you can
tighten with your fingers so it doesn't loosen up, without overtightening.
Professor Roy Hinkley
"badgolferman" <bg...@home.con> wrote in message
news:csbaj654mjcqprlk2...@4ax.com...
>I need some 2-way coax splitters and have been told that the stuff at
> walmart is junk, and the same for radio shack and the hardware stores.
>
> So what is a good brand to get? I was told to look for one with 3.5dB
> or less insertion loss per leg, frequency response up to 1000 MHz, and
> one where the back is soldered on rather than glued on, etc. I'm
> confused. Any tips?
>
>
>
Our local Comcast office gives splitters away.
Regal and Antronix are both good brands and are available at Amazon.
1PW
Snip, snip...
> I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure that all of the coax connectors
> I've seen take a 7/16" wrench.
+1
--
1PW
Adam H. Kerman
>"Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote:
>>Coax D-connectors take a 5/8 in wrench. Buy a small one if you don't
>>already own one. It's best to tighten a bit tighter than you can
>>tighten with your fingers so it doesn't loosen up, without overtightening.
>I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure that all of the coax connectors
>I've seen take a 7/16" wrench.
Oops. Don't know what I was thinking. 7/16 in wrench is correct.
RickMerrill
There are special wrenches with handles that resemble at first glance some sort of
screwdriver but have 7/16 at the end with a slotted hole for the wire. I don't have a
URL but they are great for doing coax connectors that are tightly packed - in many
situtations where a crescent wrench would be awkward. They also help do "hand tight"
without the over-tightening that a wrench can let you do.
If a splitter is going to be exposed to the weather or even in a garage, consider
buying a gold-plated one.
Some splitters are good from 5 Hz to 2300mHz these days - needed for satellite
connections but probably with better quality control to keep the Db loss down.
Cameo
news:ih4609$rma$2...@news.eternal-september.org...
> There are special wrenches with handles that resemble at first glance
> some sort of screwdriver but have 7/16 at the end with a slotted hole
> for the wire. I don't have a URL but they are great for doing coax
> connectors that are tightly packed - in many situtations where a
> crescent wrench would be awkward. They also help do "hand tight"
> without the over-tightening that a wrench can let you do.
These are the types?
http://www.hometech.com/hts/products/tools/coax_term/wrenches/
RickMerrill
Yes, my e-tech recommends #1003
To tell the truth, I'm not sure what "F-Connector for punchdown ease" means!
Katelyn
"Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote in message
news:ih3q45$118$1...@news.albasani.net...
> Coax D-connectors take a 5/8 in wrench. Buy a small one if you don't
> already own one. It's best to tighten a bit tighter than you can
> tighten with your fingers so it doesn't loosen up, without
> overtightening.
I prefer to use a 7/16" Allen wrench to tighten coax f-connectors.
Greg Buchner
"Professor Roy Hinkley" <prof...@C0MCAST.N0T> wrote:
> Our local Comcast office gives splitters away.
My local office (Minneapolis/St. Paul area) directed me to Radio Shack
the last time I needed a splitter. Said they don't hand them out anymore
and that they only provided them when a tech was doing installs.
This was more than 6 months, but less than 1 year ago.
Greg B.
--
Actual e-mail address is gregbuchner and I'm located at gmail.com
Oldster
> My local office (Minneapolis/St. Paul area) directed me to Radio Shack
> the last time I needed a splitter. Said they don't hand them out
> anymore
> and that they only provided them when a tech was doing installs.
The tech that visited me a few months ago gave me a couple of them free.
He even left me a few high quality short cables when he saw the cheap
ones I was using.
Oldster
>> These are the types?
>>
>> http://www.hometech.com/hts/products/tools/coax_term/wrenches/
>>
>
> Yes, my e-tech recommends #1003
I was able to get by so far with a W5437 type. ;-)
Allodoxaphobia
>
> "Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote:
>> Coax D-connectors take a 5/8 in wrench. Buy a small one if you don't
>> already own one. It's best to tighten a bit tighter than you can
>> tighten with your fingers so it doesn't loosen up, without
>> overtightening.
>
> I prefer to use a 7/16" Allen wrench to tighten coax f-connectors.
Oh, crap. Here we go again......... plonk
Greg Buchner
Bill <no...@none.invalid> wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:51:54 -0600, Greg Buchner <nu...@none.invalid>
> wrote:
>
> >In article <ih3q3...@news5.newsguy.com>,
> > "Professor Roy Hinkley" <prof...@C0MCAST.N0T> wrote:
> >
> >> Our local Comcast office gives splitters away.
> >
> >My local office (Minneapolis/St. Paul area) directed me to Radio Shack
> >the last time I needed a splitter. Said they don't hand them out anymore
> >and that they only provided them when a tech was doing installs.
> >
> >This was more than 6 months, but less than 1 year ago.
>
> This thread had me looking at my own stash of splitters and realizing
> I really didn't have anything worthwhile on hand, so I stopped at the
> local Comcast office today and asked for two 2-ways and 1 each of
> 3-way and 4-way. The lady didn't even blink. She just smiled and
> reached under the counter, bringing out a ratty cardboard box full of
> various splitters, each in its original plastic packaging.
>
> Here's what she gave me:
> 2-way: CommScope SV-2G and Extreme BDS102H
> 3-way: Extreme BDS103H
> 4-way: Extreme BDS104H
>
> The CommScope was made in Vietnam and the Extreme's were made in
> China. Nothing but the best, I'm sure.
Probably local management trying to save a buck.
It'll be a while before I ever check again. All I need is the coax cable
from the wall to the cable modem. I may pay for basic cable to drop the
price of my cable bill by a couple of bucks, but I'm not going to watch
what they provide in standard def when I can get high-def from rabbit
ears.
Greg Buchner
Bill <no...@none.invalid> wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:08:48 -0600, Greg Buchner <nu...@none.invalid>
> wrote:
>
> >It'll be a while before I ever check again. All I need is the coax cable
> >from the wall to the cable modem. I may pay for basic cable to drop the
> >price of my cable bill by a couple of bucks, but I'm not going to watch
> >what they provide in standard def when I can get high-def from rabbit
> >ears.
>
> I'm mostly in the same boat, (only basic cable to drop the HSI price),
> but in addition to OTA I do use the Comcast feed for the clear QAM
> channels, even though it's mostly all the same channels that I get
> OTA. Because of the slightly lower bitrate of the QAM channels versus
> the OTA channels, I have my HTPC set to record from the QAM source to
> keep the file sizes down a little.
Thanks. You got me to check for signals again on cable. When I first got
my HDTV, I couldn't get any HD signals to show up on the cable input.
They would show up just find in the Comcast provided DVR. So I pretty
much just ignored cable TV when I got rid of most of it.
But now I get most of the OTA channels in HD through cable now. Just one
that I haven't found...