I'm need to redo the coaxial/TV cables in my RV. Anyone have a diagram of a basic layout?Both my TV's are HDTV with DVD players built in, so I won't be using a satellite box or anything else.Just the park in inlet, Antenna booster, Batwing Antenna, front TV and rear TVIf your wondering why I'm doing this it's because I have a short somewhere in the lines. I keep melting coaxial cables right at the park inlet plate outside my RV!It's weird! This RV is new to us and we never used the park cable inlet before this past weekend. Anyway, cable was working fine for about an hour, picture on TV started cutting, went outside only to fins the cable smoking. Tried to unscrew it but it was to hot to touch. Unhooked it at the park cable pole. At first I thought I had a bad coaxial cable. Hooked up another one. It lasted about 3 hours then it melted too. TV works find on just the Antenna, so it's got to be something in the cable inlet plate outside the RV, I'm guess at this?

Sounds like there's a problem with the park cable, must have some leakage from the AC power at the pedestal, and finding its way to ground through your cable. Alternately, there may be a problem with your TV, putting voltage (12 volts maybe?) on the cable, which in turn is finding a ground outside of your rig, via the cable. I would suggest a bit of investigation with a voltmeter to determine the real problem. Could present a dangerous shock hazard.

I was thinking about the 12VDC idea. Perhaps the ANTENNA PANEL BUTTON is pushed for when you are using the OTA BATWING.When pushed this supplies 12VDC up the coaxial up to the PREAMP inside the BATWING. If left ON when you are using CABLE TV hookup maybe this is supplying 12VDC down that leg as well.Just a thought...Roy ken

Connect everything up including shore power, but excluding the final coax connection at the RV. Next take a multimeter set on AC volts and check between the coax shield and the RV connection point. Do this while regular load in the RV is in use. You may be very surprised. Art.

And you didn't see it spark when you screwed either of the cables in? What about the RV end of this cable, it is hot too? If you have the kind of current to smoke coax shield or the crimp connect, that is some serious current

With everything not connected measure the voltage from pedestal ground to cable shield connection. There has to be a voltage driving a current in the cable shield. Either a bad ground at the pedestal or on the cable. The park needs to be notified.

Coaxial TV cable getting hot / Need wiring diagram

27 Replies

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Apr 17, 2014
I do agree, if wire is hot there is either a problem or......
Following is a true story.

One year my Ham Radio club ask me to help by providing power for the Field Day station.. So I parked the house out in the middle of a field, dropped around 130 feet of 30 amp cord to a octo-let in one of the operating locations, we then dropped 12ga to the second position, both stations were running 100 watt transmitters (About 1.5 amps draw) plus a laptop (perhaps 1 amp) and a lamp, (1 amp max) so we are drawing less than 10 amps on a 30 amp cord.. No overload there at all, heck 18ga would have done the job and I'm running 8,

When I went to roll up the cord Sunday afternoon it was so hot I had to wear gloves.

That is.. Till I got to the part of the cord which was in the shade of my awning, that was COLD to the touch.. Yes, the source of all heat is the SUN and that is what heated my cord.
shakyjay
Explorer II
Apr 17, 2014
wa8yxm wrote:
shakyjay wrote:
wa9yxm what is causing the heat that OP referred to in initial post?

I am from Michigan, not Illinois or Wisconsin, (you got my call wrong)

OOPS my fat fingers don't always hit the right keys anymore, sorry.

wa8yxm wrote:
I do not know what caused the heat, I do not know that there WAS heat, as I said the "molten" stuff looks more like glue to me.

Seeing that the OP stated that the cable was hot I think we can take him at his word.
JimMartin wrote:
went outside only to fins the cable smoking. Tried to unscrew it but it was to hot to touch.

Too hot to touch is a sign that something is amiss. I assume the molten stuff you are referring to is the glob inside the connector. I am not sure what substance they use but connectors do have some kind of plastic looking insulating material in them. I took an old connector and applied heat to it and the material inside did melt. While it did not look exactly like what is in the picture it did look similar enough that it leads me to believe that what we are seeing is melted insulating material. My real concern is that it took quite a bit of heat to get it to melt. If that wire is getting that hot there is definitely a problem.
Jagtech
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014
Try this- disconnect the cable; then place the leads from an AC voltmeter between the metal jacket on the cable coming from the pedestal and the cable connector on the RV. I think you'll find a high AC voltage there. (with the RV power plugged into the park pedestal as normal).
JimMartin
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014
wa8yxm wrote:
shakyjay wrote:
wa9yxm what is causing the heat that OP referred to in initial post?

I am from Michigan, not Illinois or Wisconsin, (you got my call wrong)

I do not know what caused the heat, I do not know that there WAS heat, as I said the "molten" stuff looks more like glue to me.

I was hot and smoking, melted the shield off the coaxial cable.
JimMartin
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014
SCVJeff wrote:
That starts to indicate that your antenna power supply is wired to the external coax, and its fused way too high, and its cooking slowly. Does the power supply work on the antenna?

If you mean the antenna booster, then yes it works fine, in fact I replaced it with a new one yesterday to see if that was it.
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Apr 16, 2014
shakyjay wrote:
wa9yxm what is causing the heat that OP referred to in initial post?

I am from Michigan, not Illinois or Wisconsin, (you got my call wrong)

I do not know what caused the heat, I do not know that there WAS heat, as I said the "molten" stuff looks more like glue to me.
SCVJeff
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014
That starts to indicate that your antenna power supply is wired to the external coax, and its fused way too high, and its cooking slowly. Does the power supply work on the antenna?
JimMartin
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014
After looking at the park cable inlet real good. It does look like some type of hard plastic or hot glue stick is melted inside of it? I took a small piece of wire I pushed it in the outside of the inlet like I was attaching the coaxial cable. When the small cable goes thru the hard plastic it starts in the middle (like it should) but then comes out the back side and rubs up against the threaded part of the coaxial cable inlet? IS MIGHT BE THE PROBLEM?
JimMartin
Explorer
Apr 16, 2014
Jagtech wrote:
If the cables INSIDE your RV aren't getting hot, then you have heavy current from the ground (chassis) on your RV to the pedestal.. Maybe an open neutral in your RV ? or at the pedestal?? This would use the TV cable as the ground/ neutral return for your whole RV. Regardless, it may present a dangerous electric shock hazard. Find someone that really knows what they're doing, and rectify this asap.

What do you mean by "my pedestal" ?
shakyjay
Explorer II
Apr 16, 2014
wa9yxm what is causing the heat that OP referred to in initial post?

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Coaxial TV cable getting hot / Need wiring diagram

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