Coaxial Cable Antenna Lead-in Protector Theory Of Operation

[Hv&Lv]

That's interesting. I can't see how a "signal booster" would have anything to do with what you are talking about. Damage to the TV is usually caused by the cable ground from the pole or pedestal carrying a surge or current back through the TV to the receptacle ground, (a ground loop). This is exactly the reason you would want to use an isolator as I mentioned above. It separates the grounds where the cable enters the house. Lightning and surges stay outside. Your cable in the house is grounded to your service ground which is the same as your receptacle grounds.

-Hal

I never could figure it out either. They put the signal booster on and plugged into an outlet below my television. Anytime we had a lightning storm nearby the box would always get fried but it never really bothered the television. They always said to not install arrestors as it adds noise and attenuated the signal too bad.
One real bad storm it burnt out the first HDMI port. During the summer that year I bet I went through six cable boxes before it burnt the port. I didn’t care because it was their boxes. When it burnt out the second HDMI port I had enough..
They removed the booster and plowed a larger line to my house.
I filed a claim but it was no use. I don’t have enough money to fight spectrum.

 

[paulengr]

I’m dealing with a cable company right now. They did not properly bury their line on my property. I do not have cable service. If they don’t fix it soon neither will my neighbors. I’m giving the county code enforcement a chance. After that I guarantee they will be fixing it .

 

[hbiss]

One real bad storm it burnt out the first HDMI port. During the summer that year I bet I went through six cable boxes before it burnt the port.

Yeah, you can't predict what lightning will do. Best bet is to unplug when you see it coming.

-Hal

 

[GoldDigger]

I’m dealing with a cable company right now. They did not properly bury their line on my property. I do not have cable service. If they don’t fix it soon neither will my neighbors. I’m giving the county code enforcement a chance. After that I guarantee they will be fixing it .

Presumably they have, or think they have, an easement to cross your property. That may limit what you can do directly even if their installation is not code compliant. There is a chance that it is not subject to the NEC.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

 

[hbiss]

I do not have cable service. If they don’t fix it soon neither will my neighbors.

You're not contemplating doing something to the cable that would render it inoperable, are you? Even if it's on your property and there is no easement you can get in trouble if they find you did it.

-Hal

 

[Hv&Lv]

You're not contemplating doing something to the cable that would render it inoperable, are you? Even if it's on your property and there is no easement you can get in trouble if they find you did it.

-Hal

He can drive over it all day with a yard plugger or a plow if he decides to put in a garden and they can’t do anything about it.
Generally speaking cable companies don’t get easements, nor are they considered a utility.
Spectrum will go so far as to actually tell you they are an entertainment company and aren’t regulated by any utility commission oversight.

 

[hbiss]

Generally speaking cable companies don’t get easements, nor are they considered a utility.
Spectrum will go so far as to actually tell you they are an entertainment company and aren’t regulated by any utility commission...

Cable companies generally stick with the other utility easements, that's what they pay to use. (They pay to hang their cable on telco and POCO poles.) Why did they route cable across your property? Are you sure where it is isn't an easement owned by the town or city along a right-of-way?

I don't know about Spectrum and your state, but cable companies in NY are regulated by the state PSC. I know because a complaint to the PSC about a cable company gets you a call from the cable company's main office within two weeks and the problem gets fixed.

-Hal

 

[Hv&Lv]

Cable companies generally stick with the other utility easements, that's what they pay to use. (They pay to hang their cable on telco and POCO poles.) Why did they route cable across your property? Are you sure where it is isn't an easement owned by the town or city along a right-of-way?

I don't know about Spectrum and your state, but cable companies in NY are regulated by the state PSC. I know because a complaint to the PSC about a cable company gets you a call from the cable company's main office within two weeks and the problem gets fixed.

-Hal

Yeah, not here..
The cable companies are supposed to pay us a pole attachment fee, but most of the time we have to press them for payment
just because they follow an easement with their buried lines doesn’t mean they have the same rights to those easements as we do. Our easements are signed by the property owners for the installation of poles and wires only. 30+ years I have never seen a cablevision easement

 

[paulengr]

You're not contemplating doing something to the cable that would render it inoperable, are you? Even if it's on your property and there is no easement you can get in trouble if they find you did it.

-Hal

Even if there is no actual easement written somewhere they’ve been there for years. All 3 have. It becomes “squatters rights” at this point regardless of a written easement or not. In fact I suspect this is what is there because a few years ago they wanted to put another box right at the corner of my driveway and left when my wife said no.

An easement becomes trespass when the easement owner encroaches on the property beyond the purpose for which the easement exists. Trust me my family is all farmers. They know the ins and outs of easements.

No matter. Voice recording from corporate is they refused to even enter a trouble ticket! They basically said they were not going to maintain their property. If they try anything legally they are screwed because they just told me they are abandoning it.

 

[egnlsn]

In my state, cable companies are considered public utilities, and have to follow the same easements, clearances, burial depths, etc. as Telcos.

 

[hbiss]

Voice recording from corporate is they refused to even enter a trouble ticket! They basically said they were not going to maintain their property. If they try anything legally they are screwed because they just told me they are abandoning it.

Ok then. Have your attorney send them a letter stating that you will be doing extensive tree and shrub planting at that location and you can't be responsible for damage to any cable or equipment that they may have placed there without your legal permission.

Then start digging.

And if they refuse to maintain their property, what happens if the cable is damaged and those customers served by it lose service?

-Hal

 

[GoldDigger]

I never could figure it out either. They put the signal booster on and plugged into an outlet below my television. Anytime we had a lightning storm nearby the box would always get fried but it never really bothered the television. They always said to not install arrestors as it adds noise and attenuated the signal too bad.
One real bad storm it burnt out the first HDMI port. During the summer that year I bet I went through six cable boxes before it burnt the port. I didn’t care because it was their boxes. When it burnt out the second HDMI port I had enough..
They removed the booster and plowed a larger line to my house.
I filed a claim but it was no use. I don’t have enough money to fight spectrum.

For what it is worth, a properly designed and machined spark gap or gas tube coaxial surge protector will NOT add any noise to the line except while it is conducting and will be at worst a small impedance lump.
A poorly designed one that was "good enough" when signal frequencies were lower (e.g. VHF over the air TV) can definitely mess up a broadband cable signal.
The cable company will have to provide some sort of grounding adapter/protector where their cable enters the building, so there has to be at least one device acceptable to them. But they do not want to take a chance with a random device from China installed by the customer.

 

[hbiss]

The cable company will have to provide some sort of grounding adapter/protector where their cable enters the building, so there has to be at least one device acceptable to them.

I agree. There should be an isolator that separates the outside from the inside. That would eliminate those cases of the inside cable being "hot" when referenced to the receptacle (service) ground.

-Hal

 

[GoldDigger]

I agree. There should be an isolator that separates the outside from the inside. That would eliminate those cases of the inside cable being "hot" when referenced to the receptacle (service) ground.

-Hal

I was simply referring to a "standard" coax surge suppressor. What you are describing is more along the lines of a POCO neutral isolator, which would only be installed in special cases.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

 

[hbiss]

I was simply referring to a "standard" coax surge suppressor.

I'm not convinced they would even do anything. There is a very low DC resistance between the shield and center conductor provided by the cable box input as well as splitters that are not power passing. Usually, the signal goes into a few turns of wire that makes up the input coil or transformer. So in that respect, whatever voltage is on the center conductor will be on the shield. So, any surge suppressor between the center conductor and shield in this case isn't going to do much. This is why the NEC just requires that the shield be grounded where it enters the premises.

If you are an engineer for a cable equipment manufacturer or an engineer for a cable company and familiar with your equipment design, you may specify surge suppression because you would know that it would be beneficial. But just assuming it's going to help in all circumstances is wrong.

-Hal

 

[I-learns]

I

I agree. There should be an isolator that separates the outside from the inside. That would eliminate those cases of the inside cable being "hot" when referenced to the receptacle (service) ground.

-Hal

In cases where the Coaxial cable goes to a non-metallic router, then if there's a lightning strike outside the coaxial shield is bonded to the house's grounding electrode system and doesn't travel through the house. In cases where the router is metallic then even if it is connected to the house's GEC then it still travels in parallel through the house's grounding conductor system to the GEC.

 

[suemarkp]

Sometimes you can't isolate inside from outside. When I'd run a bunch of cables to a roof not knowing what they were for, I'd make sure they were DC passing as every GPS antenna I ever put up needed DC to power it over the coax (and it seems like everyone needed a GPS antenna -- I had a shielded building with about 10 GPS antennas on the roof until we got people to use our internal GPS distribution system instead). Residential TV antennas sometimes have an amplifier on the antenna, and that can be powered over the coax via DC also.

You never know what is going to need DC over a cable, so I try not to break that. I used to use the glass capsule lightning arrestors installed in a thick copper plate. But those things were more for EMP and $150+ each. I transitioned to just using bulkhead feed thru coax connectors on a copper plate as it was much cheaper. But even a 4GHz feedthru can $40 or so depending on the connector type.