Ground gets wet, cable signal goes down.

[gbertler]

I have noticed a problem that I've contacted Time Warner several times on this issue. A few years ago, a house down the road was getting gas installed, from the street. I happen to notice that when they were doing this, the cable went out. I didn't think too much of it at the time. Later that day when the cable was back on, I went into the tech menu on my SA2000 box. The signal level was about 5 db less then a few days before when I checked it. All was ok for about a year or so. Now everytime the ground gets wet, either when it rains out, or now that it's warm where I live and some of the snow melts, the signal level goes down. We had a period of about 3 weeks where we barely had any snow. My cable modem signal level stayed between -5.4 to -5.7 db. The past few days it's been about 45 degrees and now raining, and the signal level is -6.7db My forward return during the dry spell was 38db, now it is 40.5db. <ost of the stations are becoming crappy. More so around channels 2-20 ish. I'm wondering if I may be right in thinking that the company that hit the cable, just did a patch job, instead of doing it right. I'm thinking there may be water getting into the line. After it gets done raining though, the signal level stays low for several days. When the cable co. came out, they said my signal level with there equipment read I was getting about 9db to each tv. My signal to noise ratio for the digital channels are around 34-35db, and the analog one at 73.5mhz is around 20db. I'm thinking that they just beefed up the amp instead of finding the root of the problem, because a signal level of 9db should make the tv come in great, and even may be too much signal. It's weird though, that all the boxes (6 of them) read we are only getting negative -9db at 73.5mhz and anywhere between -5 to +7db on the digital channels. Something doesn't seem right. Any help would be appreciated.
Greg
I think the level on the digital channel frequencies are drastic. Also it always says in the tech menu there are uncorrected bytes. Also video on demand sometimes doesn't work. I have to exit the channel and go back in to it, and re-submit it in order for it to work sometimes, like the signal doesn't get sent back all the time.

 

[dragon002]

they nicked the coax, water in the line.. for gods sake cable in the 21st century? move on!

 

[cablewithaview]

I have noticed a problem that I've contacted Time Warner several times on this issue. A few years ago, a house down the road was getting gas installed, from the street. I happen to notice that when they were doing this, the cable went out. I didn't think too much of it at the time. Later that day when the cable was back on, I went into the tech menu on my SA2000 box. The signal level was about 5 db less then a few days before when I checked it. All was ok for about a year or so. Now everytime the ground gets wet, either when it rains out, or now that it's warm where I live and some of the snow melts, the signal level goes down. We had a period of about 3 weeks where we barely had any snow. My cable modem signal level stayed between -5.4 to -5.7 db. The past few days it's been about 45 degrees and now raining, and the signal level is -6.7db My forward return during the dry spell was 38db, now it is 40.5db. <ost of the stations are becoming crappy. More so around channels 2-20 ish. I'm wondering if I may be right in thinking that the company that hit the cable, just did a patch job, instead of doing it right. I'm thinking there may be water getting into the line. After it gets done raining though, the signal level stays low for several days. When the cable co. came out, they said my signal level with there equipment read I was getting about 9db to each tv. My signal to noise ratio for the digital channels are around 34-35db, and the analog one at 73.5mhz is around 20db. I'm thinking that they just beefed up the amp instead of finding the root of the problem, because a signal level of 9db should make the tv come in great, and even may be too much signal. It's weird though, that all the boxes (6 of them) read we are only getting negative -9db at 73.5mhz and anywhere between -5 to +7db on the digital channels. Something doesn't seem right. Any help would be appreciated.
Greg
I think the level on the digital channel frequencies are drastic. Also it always says in the tech menu there are uncorrected bytes. Also video on demand sometimes doesn't work. I have to exit the channel and go back in to it, and re-submit it in order for it to work sometimes, like the signal doesn't get sent back all the time.

almost sounds like they turned up an amp "trying" to make up for the problem if your getting 9db at the tv. 9db isn't enough signal in itself to cause you a "bad" picture, such as over driving the tv. Digital, I think, runs 10 db below analog levels. When it was cut into, there may have been another problem that was not seen when it was being repaired. Gas co. may have knocked some dirt back into the hole covering up another problem that was overlooked. Taking a TDR and seeing how far back it shows a fault would give them an idea of where to start looking.

 

[gbertler]

What's a TDR?
The fiber optic line was ran on the opposite side of the road. But where the node is, if you call it that, where the fiber gets converted to coax, is just a bit back up the line, in front of where the gas co. was. Before this also, we used to have 6 tvs connected without an amp and get good signal, now we have 8 tvs with an amp, and it's worse then years ago. I tried different variations, no amp, just splitters, an amp, and also connecting a tv straight to the line coming in. Without an amp, and with the splitters, it came in real bad, of course. I wanted to eliminate any possible chance of it just being too much signal.
Thanks much!
Greg

 

[cablewithaview]

What's a TDR?
The fiber optic line was ran on the opposite side of the road. But where the node is, if you call it that, where the fiber gets converted to coax, is just a bit back up the line, in front of where the gas co. was. Before this also, we used to have 6 tvs connected without an amp and get good signal, now we have 8 tvs with an amp, and it's worse then years ago. I tried different variations, no amp, just splitters, an amp, and also connecting a tv straight to the line coming in. Without an amp, and with the splitters, it came in real bad, of course. I wanted to eliminate any possible chance of it just being too much signal.
Thanks much!
Greg

TDR stands for: TDR (Time Domain Reflectometers)

TDR (Time Domain Reflectometer) Cable Length Meter and Fault Locator, designed to measure the length of electrical and communication cables. It can also indicate the distance to a fault in the cable (open or short), given access to only one end of a two or more conductor cable.

If it was a drop or tap issue, the tech should have picked up on it pretty quick. Then again if he traced it out to the tap and still has an issue past that, he may have to pass it off to a more advance tech to work the distribution and/or trunk. Some companies have techs that trouble shoot one pacific thing and pass it off to a more advance tech. Others usually have installers and techs and some like me have to do a little of everything.