Do I need an amp or a splitter?

[wirelesstse]

Another noob here. I've just built an extension and put in siamese coax but I didn't put enough in I think.

I have 2 Sky + boxes and 3 other tv's

my plan is to use a labgear MS512E (bought) and a PSF 310 (bought). I think I need to stick the sky feeds (4) from the LNB straight into the labgear and just feed TV/FM aerials into PSF 310.

And quadplexer plates for the sky+ boxes and triplexer plates for the ordinary TV's.

I have a sky dish with quad LNB but I had one twin feed put into the loft and one to the garage. I think I need to redirect both to the loft where the switch will be.

And here's my question - I want to try and avoid running two cables back down from the loft - SO.. Can I run one siamese cable down and use a splitter or do I need an AMP?

Will any of this work...?


TIA

J

[wirelesstse]

I guess a shorter question is can you split a feed off a multiswitch?

[Robbo]

Yes, it should work.

Where do you think you want to put a splitter and why?

You cant split satellite feeds from the multi switch, but once the terrestrial signal has been separated, you can split that if there's enough signal.


To work out if you need any amplifiers, you need to calculate whether you have enough signal at each point. The data sheets for the kit should give your their losses, plus you have the loss in the cables. It also depends on what size dish you have and the gain on the lnb, but generally, a sky minidish with lnb can cope with up to 40m of rg6 type cable attenuation wise.

[wirelesstse]

Thanks for replying.

I want to put the splitter between the switch and a Sky + box and a freeview TV. Basically because it saves me running and trying to hide another cable up into the loft. My walls are 2 foot thick solid stone and the conduit to the garage is getting very tight. The run from the loft to the garage is only about 4 metres.

MULTISWITCH -------> SPLITTER ----> QUADPLEXER_WALL_PLATE
.`````````````````````|---------->TRIXPLEXER_WALL_PLATE

From what you say it sounds like the splitter pulls out the individual signals (TV/SAT frequencies) and sends those on so my wall plates will be useless?

If I use an amp I'm sending the full set of frequencies to each wall plate I guess? Will that not feedback the right signal to the LNB perhaps?

[Robbo]

The splitter doesnt separate any of the signals, the wall plate does that. The splitter just gives 2 copies of the input signal attenuated by a few dB.

You can't split the signal on the output of the multi switch because the satellite part of it can't be split, as there would be conflicts with two receivers connected, over which band or polarity to use. Google "lnb mysteries explained", for an explanation of why you can't split the output of a universal lnb ( the multi switch effectively acts like one inconjunction with its input lnb).