Newbie Here New install with Antiference combiners / splitters and distribution system doesn’t seem to be receiving a signal …

[feisar32]

Hi

New here and (as I’m sure will quickly become apparent) new to this … thought it would be easy but seems I was wrong …

I’ve run satellite cable throughout the house while we were doing it up, with the original intention of distributing satellite, Freeview and maybe radio down the line.

we’ve now decided to make do without the satellite, at least for the time being. That being the case, I’ve bought and installed a Yagi18k aerial; this has an Antiference UDF420DC quadplexer on the pole with the cable from the aerial directly into the UHF connector, and OUT1 connected down the pole into the loft space and down into the UHF port on an Antiference A260D. One of the outputs is connected back to an SW750 outlet plate.

I thought this might be enough to at least test the aerial signal to the TV in the living room, but it’s receiving nothing. Unfortunately I can’t find any manuals for the Antiference UDF420DC so I’ve had to guess somewhat … it seemed likely that the aerial should go to the UHF connector and that output 1 would be used to carry the main signal back to the distribution box, without the satellite or radio inputs, but maybe that was wrong …

I’m fully expecting to get any number of facepalms from people on here who know what they’re doing. I still have more troubleshooting to do … I’m looking to get a meter to check the cable where it enters the loft and take a freeview box up there if it gets a signal … however, if anyone knows this hardware and has a whole “muppet, you’ve done xyz wrong, do this … “ idea they can pass on, I would be very grateful …

 

[Channel Hopper]

Bypass the quadplexer and check for a signal from the aerial.

 

[Terryl]

I would use an ohm meter and check for continuity and shorts on the coax, somewhere a nail or staple could have done some damage to the coax.

Or a bad or shorted connector, also make sure the center conductor is sticking about 2 to 3 mm out from the coax connector, too short and it may not make contact with the internal fingers on the "F" connector jack

 

[feisar32]

Thanks both, I’ll try those as soon as I can and report on the outcome

 

[feisar32]

Well, got it working … turns out I’d mislabelled the cables so they of course weren’t joining up end to end. Very embarrassing, but at least I now have a bit of experience with using a meter to check continuity and have used it to correct the labels, so thanks @Terryl

wondered still, though, whether anyone has any experience of the Antiference UDF420DC? Specifically about the purpose of the OUT2 terminal … my understanding, when originally planning this out, was that I was going to have to feed the satellite outlet from the masthead quadplexer via the distribution unit to the main quadplexed plate in the living room to a modulator and then back through a separate cable to allow magic eye usage etc via the triplexed plates in the rest of the house, and that I’d have to bring the second LNB feed directly to the Sky HD box, bypassing the masthead quadplexer and distribution amplifier entirely

is it possible the UDF420DC is expecting two (or more) satellite feeds from the LNB to be combined into one cable outside of it, then splitting them via the two OUT terminals?

admittedly, would be nice if I could find some Antiference documentation on the unit …

 

[ozumo]

How are you distributing the video from the Sky box, I assume RF?

I'm not experienced with distribution amps, but this is what I think will work:

Connect Freeview, radio and 1 LNB output to the quadplexer. The other LNB output goes directly to the Sky box. Quadplexer output 1 goes to the wall plate, then connect terrestrial output of wall plate to Sky RF-in, satellite to LNB input. Output 2 goes to VHF in on the distribution amp. Then Sky RF2-out into the UHF-in on the distribution amp. Sky RF-out 1 goes to the television if needed.

(I think) That should distribute Freeview, Sky (analogue RF) and radio to all outputs of the distribution amp.

If not using radio you can bypass the quadplexer altogether. Using it means one less cable.

 

[feisar32]

Thanks @ozumo, that sounds familiar so hopefully I was on the right track … we haven’t got a satellite dish at the moment (thought cutting ~£40 payments monthly to Sky for pretty much what you can get for nothing on Freeview was worth a try) but might well get a dish for FreeSat soon if it turns out whatever they have over Freeview is worth it, so I’ll cable the rest accordingly. I got an Edison HDMI modulator when I started working this out so may be a good time to introduce it.

thanks for the manuals too; that first one’s interesting, they’re listing OUTPUT1 under FM and OUTPUT2 under UHF so I wonder if I’m essentially using the wrong OUT …

 

[ozumo]

The way I read it output 1 has everything, output 2 is radio only. Post a photo of the unit so we can see the diagram on it.

 

[feisar32]

 

[ozumo]

Ouput 1 = UHF SAT FM DAB
Outlut 2 = FM DAB

 

[feisar32]

Ouput 1 = UHF SAT FM DAB
Outlut 2 = FM DAB

Yep, true. Thanks @ozumo, at least that output’s right …

 

[PaulR]

This seems to be the s[ecification sheet you're after.

http://cdn-docs.av-iq.com/dataSheet/220.pdf

 

[feisar32]

This seems to be the s[ecification sheet you're after.

http://cdn-docs.av-iq.com/dataSheet/220.pdf

Thanks @PaulR, I spent ages last weekend looking for documentation like that!