Cable TV Scanning

The RV uses OTA splitters which are not compatible with park cable or possibly the coax is not compatible as a guess.

For a test run temp coax from the LR TV using a barrel connector to the BR TV.

OK... CA, I will try the test. I assume the barrel connector is just a standard connector I used to add length to go from the park pedestal thru the front door to the BR TV. I assume this will work, and will re scan, but the TV will probably not keep the scan and keep the channels.
If the OTA splitter is not compatible, if I can dig thru the massive spider web of wire & cable and hydraulic lines & piping behind the wall behind where all this comes in and can find the OTA splitter do you know what kind of splitter I need to get to replace the OTA???
Thanks for your help....

If you can find the splitters then just bypass them as a test.

I use Channel Vision splitters. P/N HS-2 for two way. They are 5Mhz to 1Ghz all ports DC passing.

1995brave wrote:
I use Channel Vision splitters. P/N HS-2 for two way. They are 5Mhz to 1Ghz all ports DC passing.

MEH.

That is nothing more than another PASSIVE splitter.

HERE



There is nothing "special" or "better" with that brand.

It has the SAME loss as any other PASSIVE 2 way splitter..

"Insertion loss: = 3.5dB
Max insertion loss @ 1GHz = 4.5dB"

EVERY "PASSIVE" splitter uses nothing more than RESISTORS inside. 2Way passive splitters use 75 ohm resistors, a 3way with use 75 ohm on one port and another 75 ohm resistor feeds two more 75 ohm resistors for the second and third port.

Unless it is a specialty splitter designed to block DC they will all pass DC.

for the record, 3DB IS HALF the signal so 3.5 DB loss per port is MORE THAN HALF of your signal lost..

For the OP, there is a good chance that you may have a 3Way splitter, with those one port may have 3.5DB loss and the other two will have 7DB loss.. Your back TV may be on that 7DB loss..

However, typically when on cable, there is PLENTY of signal typically to get over that loss.

The only way to diagnose is to bypass the RV wiring temporarily by running a coax directly from the park connection to your back TV and retrying the scan..

If it works then you have a signal loss issue, that could be in your RV or it could be the campgrounds.. In most campgrounds they feed the cable hookup via multiport splitters, you could have a bad splitter on the park side of things.. I have run into this.

To check that connect your RV to a different campsite port and see if that helps..

If a different campsite hookup works better than have the campground replace their splitter at your site.

If it doesn't help, then you may need to find your splitter to see if you have a three way in there..

Channels 2-13 are VHF frequencies and channels 14 and higher are UHF frequencies. It may be that TV is filtering out, or cannot receive, the VHF frequencies. Could also be a menu selection.

To compound the problem, the displayed channel is not necessarily the actual transmitted channel.

One possible issue is the ANT/Cable setting. SOME channels (IE 3) are common to both. Some are not .

I would like to post how OTA channels 2 and above (is it 56 or 62) have nothing at all to do with CABLE channels but I will not. I should.....no....I will not!

OK Thanks all. Today I will try to locate the splitter and make sure it is 5MHz - 1GHz
Here is what I have done so far.
Direct hook up with the cable from the pedestal to the cable input in the 5er & scan the living room TV and all 49 channels on the campground system, (Opticaltel) work and are crystal clear, the bedroom TV does not pick up channel 2 thru 7. These channels are 2 PBS, 3 CBS, 4 NBC, 5 FOX, 6 ABC, 7 CW
It scans all and starts with channel 8, USA on thru channel 49 and all cable channels are crystal clear.
I disconnected from the 5er hook up & ran the cable from the pedestal directly to the bedroom TV thru the front door directly into the TV and it scans all channels including 2 thru 7 and works. Then when you disconnect and hook up to the system, 2 thru 7 does not work.
I disconnected the living room TV and ran the cable from the cable input there thru the inside of the 5th wheel directly into the bedroom TV and it scans all channels including channel 2 thru 7 comes in crystal clear. Then when you replace the bedroom to the cable input there, channel 2 thru 7 does not come in...
So the TV's both work and will broadcast those channels and the cable system is putting out the signal for those stations. But for some reason the bedroom TV will not pick up those 6 channels on the system the way it is wired now.....
Before I get into the spaghetti/spider web of cable, wire, hydraulic lines and piping behind that wall in the storage area, I will try to run to another pedestal and see if that works. If not, then into the spaghetti/spider web looking for the splitter....

BB_TX wrote:
Channels 2-13 are VHF frequencies and channels 14 and higher are UHF frequencies. It may be that TV is filtering out, or cannot receive, the VHF frequencies. Could also be a menu selection.

To compound the problem, the displayed channel is not necessarily the actual transmitted channel.

Cable TV unlike OTA broadcasters do not have to follow any FCC rule on what and how and what order things are put on the cables they run or even high high of channel frequencies they can go, they often have channels outside the OTA broadcasters range.

It can be Analog, analog/digital or all digital.

NTSC was all analog and that is where Ch2 is broad coast on Ch2.

ATSC is OTA digital, cable systems typically do not use ATSC, instead they use QAM which is a bit more compact and has the advantage of cable cos enabling the private bit to scramble it..

Most modern TVs include tuners which are able to receive NTSC, ATSC and QAM (be aware, although there have been TVs made that did not have QAM capable tuners even though they have ATSC).

With the digital channels, they are not always broadcast on the old analog channel that they may indicate. Example, CH2.1 most likely is not broadcasted on analog CH2 frequency but instead it can be "MAPPED" from the old analog channel 30 in UHF.

The digital channel setup allows broadcasters and cable companies to keep the old analog channel "name" but yet actually modulated on a completely different frequency.

It is also called "virtual channels".

On those TVs IF you see CH2, CH2.0 or sometimes CH2-0 that IS an analog channel and it IS the real CH2 modulated on CH2.

If you see CH2.1, CH2.1, CH2-1 THOSE are DIGITAL channels and those most likely are modulated on a completely different analog channel.

Some TVs may have a "ant" or "OTA" or "AIR " vs Cable or CATV setting in the menu. For these, you will need to manually select between OTA and CABLE and rescan.

Some TVs actually do not have ANY settings between OTA or cable, those tuners require no manual intervention and will scan ALL possible OTA AND CABLE modulation frequencies. These ones I have seen them search all digital channels first, then scan for analog channels and once all searches have completed it will return you back to menu or to the first lowest channel found.

Lately, now that FCC has released Cable Companies from the "must carry" rules which required Cable companies to provide any LOCAL OTA broadcast "in the clear", they are no longer required to keep open channels which typically were modulated as analog NTSC.

Many cable companies have moved to all digital but that digital is not QAM, instead they are now using a streaming method that is not compatible with QAM tuners and requires the use of a cable converter "box" which is the size of a pack of cigarettes. Cable companies using this method must supply customer with at least one free, no charge converter.

The streaming convert box in the OPs situation obviously does not come into play here but it needed to be explained for clarity.

So, as you can see, it is not a simple cut and dry situation.