Cable guy left this at my house. What's it for? Just curious.

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zappy

Senior Member
Location
CA.
The name on it is a "Regal RILA-16 Attenuator". I can't figure out why you would need this? I don't do much low voltage wiring. Thank you.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
May I ask, why you would need to do that? I'm ignorant.

Every turn up a stereo beyond what the wattage the speakers are rated for? If so, what happens?.... it sounds like crap, right?

Same principal applies to RF signals. Too much signal causes distortion. Attenuators, well, attenuate the signal.

Definition of attenuate:
Electronics To reduce (the amplitude of an electrical signal) with little or no distortion.
 

zappy

Senior Member
Location
CA.
Every turn up a stereo beyond what the wattage the speakers are rated for? If so, what happens?.... it sounds like crap, right?

Same principal applies to RF signals. Too much signal causes distortion. Attenuators, well, attenuate the signal.

Definition of attenuate:
Electronics To reduce (the amplitude of an electrical signal) with little or no distortion.

Thanks for the explaination.
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
They also make slope attenuators, which reduce signal strength by an amount that is dependent upon frequency; the lower the frequency, the greater the attenuation.

This is to compensate for the natural tendency of cable to attenuate the highest frequencies the most on long cable runs, so the signal strength at the end is more even.
 

egnlsn

Senior Member
Location
Herriman, UT
Occupation
A/V/Security Technician
They also make slope attenuators, which reduce signal strength by an amount that is dependent upon frequency; the lower the frequency, the greater the attenuation.

This is to compensate for the natural tendency of cable to attenuate the highest frequencies the most on long cable runs, so the signal strength at the end is more even.
Those are called equalizers.
 

hurk27

Senior Member
one of the biggest reasons was to prevent over loading the front end of the TV which can cause channel ghosting across adjacent channels, this happens when they turn up the signal gain for a TV in a long run of cable, and over drive a short run to a close TV. With digital I don't think this will be as much a problem, but can cause allot of pixtaling if signal is too high
 
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