[mythtv-users] Coax splitters - how painful are they?

[Brian Wood]

Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 26, 2007 at 10:33:32PM -0400, R. G. Newbury wrote:
>> What about coax/antenna amps?  Anyone have any recommendations?
>> Neither my cable feed nor my antenna have enough oomph to give a usable 
>> signal after being combined into single coax.
> 
> You shouldn't be combining incoming CATV with incoming OTA (probably at
> all; certainly without amplifiers and a directional coupler).  If you
> just tie them together, you're leaking CATV out the antenna, and you
> are very likely to receive a fairly prompt visit from the FAA.
> 
> No, I didn't hit the wrong key; CATV has a visual carrier fairly close
> to the 121.5 aviation emergency frequency; the FAA sometimes
> investigates such issues personally; sometimes they call the FCC EIC
> for the district.
> 

I can state that Mr. Ashworth is correct. I have personally met with
several USAF and CAP officers about leakage problems around 121.5 Mhz.
So at least on some occasions they bring in the military folks even.

Cable systems are legally required to regularly patrol their systems for
any such leakage, as they do in fact use channels in that range.

Basically if you try and combine the signals you will essentially be
transmitting the CATV system through the air, not a great idea, though
your neighbors might enjoy it, especially if you have some premium
channels :-)

beww