Strange issue with TV cable connection when on campground cable

[kittmaster]

We are at Normandy farms in Foxboro Mass. They have cable here which is hooked up and working. The TV in question the 28": So we switch the TV to cable, auto-program and it captures most of the channels. It has analog on the lower channels and HD on the higher channels. Now for example, channel 56 and 57 are NBC and CBS respectively in HD. The channels range from 2 to like 110. The 28" seems to completely miss like 54 through 72 (or something like that). But every other channel comes in correctly and properly tunes....so that is like....85% of the channels....most would say....great...move along.

The rub: The 24" in the bedroom can and does tune in 56 and 57 (and all the other channels) with super clear picture without issues. So I'm scratching my head as to why the 28 is missing those channels? Both are the factory Samsung TV's that came with it...both when set to Air with the booster on tune the identical OTA channels when autoprogrammed....so I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this behavior?

All of the factory coax antenna cables are in use and clearly can't be defective since both OTA and cable seem to tune in properly...minus this small deviation.

The "only" difference between the two setups from the factory is that I installed a 90 degree right angle coax antenna adapter because the cable was "jammed" against the wall. The bandwidth of the connector I added is mean for HD use and since the "higher" hand channels come in fine, it isn't a bandwidth limited issue caused by the right angle adapter or else I wouldn't be able to tune in anything in the 90-110 channel area due to the higher frequencies that they modulate at.

I hope I have provided enough info, does anyone have a thought as to what maybe going on? Anyone have a part number for the antenna booster? I can't seem to find a manual for it or what it is so I can see what the behind the wall connections look like.

Thoughts?

Thanks
Chris

[kbmwrs]

Can you 'tune' the 28" manually to those channels it is missing?
Could be that the memory in the TV skipped those because the signal was just not strong enough at that instant it scanned it...while the 24" did capture the channels.

A wild guess on my part.

[kittmaster]

yes, tried to manually tune it, no one home. It was very strange.

I've seen this in another campground we were at.....and I've seen where they both tune the same thing.

What I never really understood is the tv has 3 option STD, IRC, & HRC.

I usually just use STD to scan the channels.

We will be back there in the fall and will try again if I can sort out what the issue may be.

[jeffmc306]

Chris, we had an issue using the campground’s cable last year - poor quality picture. The owner came out with a Fluke meter and tested the signal at the pedestal - it was fine.

Next he connected it to the front TV’s coax where I had a 90 degree adapter too. The signal dropped 20-30 db. His comment was “the problem is in your trailer”.

I ran the coax from the pedestal directly to the TV through the door and the picture was fine (no 90 adapter / low profile coax). *I eventually replaced the coax with an HD cable with a built-in 90.

The other variable is the Winegard amp/splitter in the wall. I pulled mine out to check the cable connections. One was finger tight. Looking at the Winegard device I can tell it’s pretty basic little circuit board.

I’d like to replace it with something more robust but haven’t found anything yet. I have a Channel Master amp on my home antenna that works great but you still need a splitter and an A/B switch to select between OTA and Cable.

Next time you’re at that campground remove the 90 degree adapter and maybe take another short coax

[richard5933]

The Time Warner guy came to the house once looking for similar problems. One TV out of many was not getting all the channels.

Problem was the 90-degree adapter. He told me never to use them as they are generally speaking poorly built and cause many problems.

If this doesn't fix it for you, there is always the possibility that the connections are loose feeding the 28" TV.

[kittmaster]

I've always known you may lose a few db on a connector....but the cable is "jammed" into the back of the TV into the wall....and over time...will cause the cable to fail...of course the 90 degree solves the problem...I don't think this is a good trade off....and it can also damage the tv connector over time with the constant strain and road vibration on the coax connection to the circuit board.

I may have to look at an offset method to be able to remove the 90 degree....but I will certainly try it again without it when I return to see if that solves the issue.

Thanks for the heads up....I should have thought of that....and will also check the amp booster connections for tightness as well.

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by kittmaster

I've always known you may lose a few db on a connector....but the cable is "jammed" into the back of the TV into the wall....and over time...will cause the cable to fail...of course the 90 degree solves the problem...I don't think this is a good trade off....and it can also damage the tv connector over time with the constant strain and road vibration on the coax connection to the circuit board.

I may have to look at an offset method to be able to remove the 90 degree....but I will certainly try it again without it when I return to see if that solves the issue.

Thanks for the heads up....I should have thought of that....and will also check the amp booster connections for tightness as well.

In this case, it might be worth finding a cord with a 90-degree end on it instead of the straight end, or lacking that researching who is making a high-quality 90-degree adapter.

I know I've seen cords made with the 90 built in so that might be the option with the least loss.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

When the "cable folks" come out to the house here, there is a ritual they go through. They cut the ends off of every cable in sight and put new connectors on them. The mantra is "that looks like a poorly made connection". Eventually the main feed to the house gets so short you need to dig a new trench out to the post.

I have never seen any of them actually *test* these connections before they chop them off. It's not that hard to do. My feeling is that it's just a way to make you feel good that they "did something" while they roamed around your house.

Indeed there are bad connectors. You can spot a lot of them visually. When it gets to cutting off a connector and replacing it with an identical one using exactly the same tool to do so .... that sort of falls apart.

Bob

[kittmaster]

So an update on this...

I removed the 90 degree connector and restored it to the original straight through connector. Going back to Normandy yielded both TVs tuning the same stations as they expected. It tuned about 96 channels (matching their cable guide) so that resolved the issue.

I also found that my original coax cable was also having issues (very low use) and bought a new 50 footer. The new cable didn't affect the 96 channels above, but what I was seeing was pixilation when a wind blew enough to shake the cable......I went out there and manually move it I could see the image pixilate. So must have been a poor assembly process.

As a side note to remove all doubt the cable didn't solve the core issue, I'm at Fisherman's Memorial Park in Galilee Rhode Island....normally I can't tune channel 10 (NBC -- OTA i.e. no cable) during the day and auto tunes arounds 8 channels or so depending on the stratosphere....Now with the 90 removed, it tunes almost 48 channels.....so that 90 degree is clearly a POS.....I'll need to find an alternative cable with a 90 prebuilt.

I created a thread that asked if anyone knew what coax they are using:

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f37...ng-225756.html

Anyone have any thoughts?

thx,
Chris

[kittmaster]

So an update:

I replaced the cables on both TVs with the results explained here:

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f37...ml#post2535261

As an FYI to anyone considering this conversion, it is relatively easy as AS only used black tape to create a simple "harness" to the rear tv and some oddity in/out routing in the body frame for the front TV....therefore swapping the cable out will be "easy" and it will be functional and cosmetically simple to restore.

The lengths are the "issue" here....the rear tv umbilical coax cable measures in at 5 feet...the cables available are 6 feet....so some "service looping" is needed but more than manageable. The front TV coax is around 3.5 feet...and the 3 footer helps "a bit" but still a "loop" is needed.

Unlike the 90 degree "adapter" that I thought would fix my "issue" with damaging the cable from the factory installation, the new cable solves the same problem and the signal integrity seems to be very good.

I will report back to update near the close of season to report the "final" results of how it all worked out.

Thus far, it looks promising.

[jeffmc306]

Kittmaster, thanks for posting an update! I just checked the cable I replaced in Post #4 above and it’s the same one you just installed from Amazon. We’ve had no more issues since then. Sorry I didn’t post the link but you found it anyway!