Not Locost related but i'm sure there's some one out there that can offer advice as your a helpfull and knowledgeable lot .....

I'm upgrading my Sky to Sky+ (2nd hand box - so doing the wiring myself) before i start drilling holes in the walls any advice on the best way to wire it all up....

I'll have 2 drops from the dish to the Sky+ box in the lounge (should i run both cables directly to the box or use faceplates for neatness?) I also want to run a normal aerial feed to the TV to use the TV's onboard freeview tuner.

Then the old Sky box is moving to the kitchen with a freesat card in it, 1 drop from the dish and 1 RF feed from the sky+ box with a magic eye so i can get the subscription channels in the kitchen if i want to....

Currently have a wireless transmitter sending AV to the telly in the kitchen but its prone to interference from the microwave etc... so rather have a wired link.

Does this seam sensible or is there a better way?

Cheers for any advice.

Ash.

Sounds about right to me. I used a faceplate for neatness. Good luck trying to find a plate with two threaded terminals and one normal one though! I used a standard Sky one with one non threaded terminal and a seperate plate for the normal TV aerial.

Unless you really can't live with cables coming out of a hole in the wall, IME it's better not to have a face plate and patch cables simply because every connector adds a (not insignificant) loss at microwave frequencies. Couple this with the loss down a decent length of coax, usually a marginally sized dish and you need all the signal you can get if you don't want problems in bad weather.

Apart from that it seems like a good plan.

hi
do u need a freesat card? i can get 300 odd channels with out.
some are regional bbc and itv etc.
graham

Like he says, make as few joins as possible and also keep away from your domestic wiring as things like fridges, microwaves and washing machines can cause interference problems when they switch on and off.

I'd use a faceplate and patch leads.
- As long as there not shagged the addition conection should make any noticable diffrence and the cables arnt a fan of being flexed too much.


Daniel

Iv got no faceplates. The wires come through the wall and along the skirting bard in trunking. U dont notice theyr there.

Have you got a sky+ subscription? If not the box wont work to record..

Ta for the thoughts...

I think i'm going to live with holes in the wall as they wont really be seen, but had a new idea as the existing aerial enters the house through the holes in an old type of air brick grate thingy, so may just poke through next to this then up through the floorboards and around the edge of the room under the carpet...

I got some plates with 2 x F connectors, aerial + Radio but as they all come down 1 cable (+ 2nd sky cable) and i'd need another box in the loft that the UHF aerial & Dish go into, so these i'll take back to B&Q!

True i could just use the skybox as a freeview box, but want to take advantage of the freesat channels thus i need a freesat card.

Sky + is no extra cost from sky over my current subscription but i do need to update my current card so i can use the recorder, just a phone call to SKY, advantage of DIY over upgrading through SKY is i dont have to have the phone plugged into the box and not tied into years contract.

Recieved my Quad LNB for the dish today , just need some F Connectors and i can get going! Typically B&Q have sold out of F connectors anywhere else on the Hi-Street sell them?

Ash.

Maplin do them.

My Sky guy told me before I can the cables to be very careful not to bend them too hard as it knackers the wires inside, long sweeping curves are best...