Antenna splitter: how it works and how to connect it

Two TVs in the apartment to surprise anyone now is difficult. Technology, and even the devices of signal reception, are constantly developing in our rapid age, which inevitably affects the price reduction for older models. And this, in turn, leads to the fact that almost every family can afford the second TV, or even the third one. Agree, it is still convenient when you can watch your favorite programs in the kitchen or in your room, without disturbing anyone from your family members. And in this case we will definitely need an antenna splitter.

Active or passive: how to make the right choice?

Do not even think about simply connecting a pair of wires to the antenna in parallel and thus obtaining another signal source. The quality of the image as a result of such an operation will be very bad - a multi-contour will appear, the contrast will decrease, etc. Therefore, you need to use an antenna splitter, or, as it is popularly called, "crab".

If the signal source is good, which can be determined visually, and before that there was only one TV in the house, then the model assembled on the basis of resistive dividers is quite suitable. Such an antenna splitter is considered passive and, although it provides a good signal conditioning, nevertheless contributes to it a certain attenuation, proportional to the strength of the number of outputs. This type of well-established in a large city or nearby metropolitan area, where the transmission capacity is quite high.

Accordingly, with poor reception or a large number of receivers, it will be better to use an active-type antenna splitter. This device not only divides the incoming TV signal, but also enhances its power.

When buying a splitter, pay attention to the attenuation level, which is indicated in decibels both on the device labeling itself and in the accompanying instruction. The lower the value of this indicator, the better. If you can see the frequencies of the received channels in the TV menu, remember the largest value from them and check that it is within the frequency range of the selected device.

How to connect the antenna splitter

All that is needed to connect the second TV in addition to the device itself is a television cable, mounting brackets (if the cable will be attached to the wall), a sharp knife, a regular tape measure and antenna plugs (by the number of additional TVs). First we choose the place in the apartment where the antenna splitter will be located. It is best to use for this purpose a special socket, mounted on the wall of the room. Then measure the number of meters from this point to each of the two TVs, add up, add a couple of meters to the reserve and buy the required length of the antenna cable. Now it needs to be cut into the required pieces, from which ends the knife is removed from the outer shell, and the braid is bent outward to the uncleaned part. After that, instead of the plug that is located on the end of the old coaxial cable, a splitter for the antenna is connected, and to it are pre-prepared pieces of cables to all the receivers. Then all these wires are fixed motionless with the help of brackets or cable channel of the skirting board. The last thing left to do is to turn on all the devices and check the quality of the received signal.