Cut Sky cable - how can I join it back together?

kmmr · 13 November 2010 at 6:03PM

Hi,

Hope you nice people can help me with my SKY cables.

We have had a loose cable coming in for SKY recently - just direct from the cable outside in through a window, and then onto the back of the box. For complex reasons....

Anyway, the cable was cut so that the cable could be properly put into the wall and into the house, and the cable guy has threaded the wire in, but has left it as two open bare wires - with the cable cut down (like with a wire stripper).

So - basically we now have a cable from the outside into the house, and then the cable going into the SKY box, but there is a split in the middle. Both base ends of the cut cable are wire stripped.

So, basically, how can I put the cable back together? Can I just twist the four ends pieces (its a double coaxial cable) together like an electrical cable? Or do I need something special? Cable guy will be back next week 'sometime', but I would like to be able to watch TV in the meantime! And, as a side issue, can I accidently do myself (or the cable, or the SKY box) damage if I mess with the cables!

Thanks

KMMR

Hammyman · 13 November 2010 at 6:15PM

Really easy.

Assuming the cables don't reach the telly then you need the following. If they do,you just need a couple of screw on f-connectors which you can take off the leads coming out the sky box. TBH its a pretty amateurish job of the installer not to have them reach the box unless you're planning on having wallsockets fitted for them.
You need four screw on F connectors and two female to female adapters.

So...four of these:

Two of these:
f%20koppel.jpg

Prepare the cable as you can see in the picture below and make sure absolutely no strands are touching the middle conductor.

Screw the f-connectors onto the cable (put the cable into the knurled end) and keep screwing them on until the plastic bit of the cable that goes around the centre wire is flush with the little ridge halfway down the middle of the connector as you can just about make out in the top photo at the top of the thread - it'll all be clear when you do it. Do this on all four ends of wire you have. Once you've done that, simply join them together using the two female to female connectors you've bought.

Use the female to female connector to join the wires from the dish to the ones from the box. Doesn't matter which joins to which.

kmmr · 13 November 2010 at 6:34PM

Cool - that is brilliant! Thanks - clear and easy.

Can I pick all this up from somewhere like homebase? Or do I need something like Maplins?

The guy is coming back to put wall sockets in - that is why it is being done next week, I am just a bit annoyed at having another weekend without TV!

If it is as easy as it sounds, I give it all a go tomorrow. Thanks heaps!

KMMR

ddoris · 13 November 2010 at 6:40PM

If it's a bit late to get those bits you could use sellotape and maybe a bit of kitchen foil for extra shielding, join centre to centre then tape all over this join so none of the outer shielding can touch it and then join outer to outer - same on each cable -must be two cables for $ky plu$.

edit : I don't mind bodging but I am amazed that a) the fitter didn't just undo the box end of the cable and thread that end in without cutting it , as really all joins are to be avoided
b)he's left you all this time without tv - "I am just a bit annoyed at having another weekend without TV!"

cit_k · 13 November 2010 at 6:42PM

Make sure the lead is not plugged into the sky box when you work on it...

There is voltage present in the cable when its plugged in, whilst it is very unlikely to harm you it can give you a bit of a jolt, which could cause accidents.

I do not know if the sky box is protected against shorts - ie if you were to repair the cable less than successfully (and the two wires shorted together without you noticing)....

kmmr · 13 November 2010 at 8:30PM

ddoris wrote: »

If it's a bit late to get those bits you could use sellotape and maybe a bit of kitchen foil for extra shielding, join centre to centre then tape all over this join so none of the outer shielding can touch it and then join outer to outer - same on each cable -must be two cables for $ky plu$.

edit : I don't mind bodging but I am amazed that a) the fitter didn't just undo the box end of the cable and thread that end in without cutting it , as really all joins are to be avoided

Actually there is a lot more to the story. I just didn't want to confuse it all! The cable now comes into the bedroom at the front of the house, where there will be a wall point, and then it joins onto another internally cabled set of cables that goes into a number of other rooms. Done as part of the house rewiring. So there needs to be a break there for the wall socket, and then continuing on into the living room.

Before we were running about 20 m of cable through the house into the living room, so I am just trying to get that 'bodge' version back up and running before X factor! :embarasse

So I just want to connect the long cable from the bedroom then through to the living room.

ddoris wrote: »

b)he's left you all this time without tv - "I am just a bit annoyed at having another weekend without TV!"

Well, that is true. We are at the end of a long renovation, and this is just the last thing that I wish they would finalise! Getting things like the house watertight have been higher on the list, and we have lived with Internet TV for a while. There were just a few glorious days of working Sky TV that I dream may return one day!!

Thanks for your help. I'll see what I can do tomorrow, and will probably be back with another set of questions!

Hammyman · 13 November 2010 at 9:15PM

ddoris wrote: »

If it's a bit late to get those bits you could use sellotape and maybe a bit of kitchen foil for extra shielding, join centre to centre then tape all over this join so none of the outer shielding can touch it and then join outer to outer - same on each cable -must be two cables for $ky plu$.

YOU CANNOT DO THIS BODGE ON SATELLITE TV. Its not UHF, its microwave frequencies. Its already going to have a low signal strength with the length of the cable run and this'll make it horrific. If you're lucky you'll have a 10dB loss in the joint which means you only get 10% of the signal that was going into that point being seen by the sky box. If its 20dB loss, that's 100th of the signal etc etc etc.

Hammyman · 13 November 2010 at 9:17PM

kmmr wrote: »

Actually there is a lot more to the story. I just didn't want to confuse it all! The cable now comes into the bedroom at the front of the house, where there will be a wall point, and then it joins onto another internally cabled set of cables that goes into a number of other rooms.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I hope to god you're talking about the antenna cables and not the cables from the satellite dish joining onto anoter internal set of cables.

If its the satellite dish ones and the feeds being split, I give it next to no chance of working.

kmmr · 13 November 2010 at 9:22PM

Hammyman wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I hope to god you're talking about the antenna cables and not the cables from the satellite dish joining onto anoter internal set of cables.

If its the satellite dish ones and the feeds being split, I give it next to no chance of working.

Well - to be honest I have no idea what is going on inside the walls, I am just guessing.

All I have been told I can get Sky in two of the rooms (Main bed and living room), and normal TV in the others, but I once I get it all up and working I will pin down the builders/electrician/cable people to confirm what works where. We have been focussed on getting the main TV working, and will then work on the other points.

spike7451 · 13 November 2010 at 10:18PM

kmmr wrote: »

Well - to be honest I have no idea what is going on inside the walls, I am just guessing.

All I have been told I can get Sky in two of the rooms (Main bed and living room), and normal TV in the others, but I once I get it all up and working I will pin down the builders/electrician/cable people to confirm what works where. We have been focussed on getting the main TV working, and will then work on the other points.

This is the ONLY way you can do it.
You need one unbroken feed from the dish to the main sky box,Tow feeds if it's Sky+.
If you want a seperate Sky service in the bedroom,you will again need a unbroken feed from the Sky dish to the bedroom as well as another Sky box.You will also need a Quad LNB.
If you don't want a seperate Sky box in the bedroom but still want to watch Sky there,you will need to run a seperate cable from the back of the Sky box connected to RF2 output to the bedroom TV.You can then add on a TV link at the bedroom end to enable you to change the channels on the Sky box from the bedroom.
To enable you to further extend that line to a third TV,you will also need to fit a booster box at some point after the RF2 Output,this is to boost the 9v output from the RF2 that powers the TV links.You could of course run the cable from the Sky box to the attic & fit the booster box there & spur off to the bedroom & third TV point.
Your ordinary airial MUST NOT be connected to any of the cables from the dish to the Sky box,you need to connect the airial to the RF In on the back of the Sky box.Along with the Sky signal to the other TV sets via the RF2,will also go the airial signal.

kmmr · 15 November 2010 at 10:25PM

Right - all sorted! We have sky.

We have a cable running through the house again... but it will do for the moment.

Thanks to everyone for your help. Was very easy once I got down to doing it. I bought the connector kits from homebase, for around £3 each, so all in all quite cheap and easy.

Cut Sky cable - how can I join it back together?

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