The splitters on the left are glued the splitters on the right are soldered and offer better interference protection: Look at the back of the RF splitter if the back plate is glued on instead of soldered on then you will want to replace the splitter. The cable on the left if poorly shielded and will be prone to interference the cable on the right is well shielded:įinally, check for any RF splitters in the line. You will want to look for the cables with quad layer shielding. They’re not the least expensive in the store, but they also aren’t much more expensive than poor-quality cables. Retail outlets do carry good quality cables. Next, check the cable feeding the set-top box. Tightening the connector with your fingers is sufficient – but keep in mind that if you move the set-top box the connector may get loose again.
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If you find that interference has befallen you and the video on your TV is breaking up when you use your portable device, the first thing to do is check that the connector on the cable leading to your set-top box is tight. This graph shows the shielding performance of a connector when it is tight (green vertical bar on the right), backed off by a half turn (blue vertical bar on the left) and backed off by 1 turn (red vertical bar in the center). The story is similar for RF power splitters:Įven a loose connector can compromise a system with great components: These cables came from retail outlets and from cables that builders may have used during home construction. The vertical bars on the left of each group represent cables with the most risk. The vertical bar on the right of each group above represents the performance of trade-grade cables (what you typically get from your local provider). The place where things start to get risky is with the cables that feed the cable modems and set-top boxes, as seen below:Ĭable companies have to live with interference issues when wireless and wired signals mix together, so they are quite diligent in ensuring that the cables they use are well shielded. The results for set-top boxes are similar. This shows that cable modems are in good shape and are able to keep the freewheeling RF signals in the air from getting in. The vertical bar on the right of each grouping represents a cable modem model that is just now being deployed. The cable modems represented by the three vertical bars in the center of each grouping represent the majority of devices currently deployed. The cable modem represented by the blue vertical bar on the left of each grouping is an older unit that has been largely replaced in the field. We measured a variety of cable modems to produce this chart. The red dashed lower horizontal line represents the field strength it would produce at a distance of 5 feet when it is operating at a more typical power level. The blue dashed upper horizontal line represents the amount of field strength an LTE based cellphone will produce at a distance of 5 feet when it is transmitting at its maximum allowable power. This chart shows the electromagnetic field strength required to cause a failure (a lost data packet or video picture breakup) on the device we tested. Here are a few charts showing what we’ve found: We have performed measurements to check the quality of the RF shielding approach. This includes using multiple layers of shielding on our cables, tight connectors and well-designed cable modems and set-top boxes. With our natural separation solution out the door we have to fall back to our next line of defense: RF shielding.
However, the wireless spectrum has gotten crowded, and relatively recently cellphones have begun using frequencies that cable TV systems use. It turns out that signals at different frequencies don’t like to mingle (a natural separation solution). A simple way to do this is to have the signals in the cable use a different frequency range than the signals in the air. Over the ages we engineers have done our best to keep the interference to a minimum. This means that using your cellphone near your TV can result in interference. However, they are freewheeling spirits that enjoy visiting their friends in the cables. Our world would be simpler if wireless RF signals would dutifully follow separation rules.
In an ideal world signals in the air wouldn’t mingle, mix, or blend with signals on a cable.