Use Sky dish with twin cable for single Freesat HD card

aix0

aix0

aix0

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Staffordshire
Hi Guys

My house has a Sky dish installed and it has the twin cable stuff (I think it is used for Sky+ / Sky HD). Does anyone know if it is possible to utilise just a single core on this twin cable? Will it work, or do both cores have to be connected?

The cable connectors have been cut off, and I had stripped the cable to the copper core and 'plugged' it in to the DVB-S2 card in my computer, but it didn't work. Should it work without having a correctly terminated (RG6?) connection?

I'm trying to determine whether it's not working because both cables require connecting, if it's down to the cable having to be properly terminated (I was assuming that the copper making contact would suffice for testing), or there's something else that's not setup correctly.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
 
Just one connection should work fine. The reason there are two feeds is because the Sky+ boxes are dual tuner so they can record one channel while watching or recording another.

The type of connector that goes on the end is an F connector. You can get screw on plugs for these for very little money which just involves stripping the cable down and twisting the connector on the end but really it should work if the inner and outer copper wires are making proper contact.

You could try getting a screw on F connector so it's more correct but if that fails (and indeed both inner and outer copper parts were making contact) then maybe the dish is out of alignment or the LNB on it is knackered?
 
Yep they're both completely independent connections, it's just shotgun cable which makes running 2 cables for dual tuner boxes more convenient.

I'd get some twist on connectors off Ebay they're cheap enough, if it still doesn't work could be an issue with the dish.
 
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Thanks for the replies, guys.

Phemo said:
but really it should work if the inner and outer copper wires are making proper contact.
Click to expand...

All I've done thus far is push the centre core into the female connector on my card. Should the shielding part be making contact also?
 
mmj_uk said:
I think the outer braid and connector acts as an Earth connection or something, not sure though.
Click to expand...


As I recall, high frequency co-ax operates in a grey zone where it is a cross between a "Conductor" and a "Wave-guide", so yes, it needs to be properly terminated to work properly.
 
Thanks for all the input, Chaps. Managed to source the correct fitting from the local Maplin store, and it works a treat now. :)
 
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