With two televisions in the apartment it’s hard to surprise anyone now. Technologies, and the signal receiving devices themselves, are constantly evolving in our fast-moving century, which will inevitably affect the price reduction for older models. And this, in turn, leads to the fact that almost every family can afford a second television, or even a third. Agree, it's still convenient when you can watch your favorite shows in the kitchen or in your room, without disturbing anyone from your family. And in this case, we definitely need an antenna splitter.
Active or passive: how to make the right choice?
Do not even think about just connecting a couple of wires to the antenna in parallel and thus getting another signal source. The quality of the picture as a result of such an operation will be very poor - there will be multi-contouring, 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 good signal matching, it nevertheless introduces a certain attenuation into it, proportional to the number of outputs in strength. This type is well established in a large city or nearby metropolis, where the broadcast power is quite high.
Accordingly, with poor reception or a large number of receivers, it will be better to use an active type antenna splitter. Such a device not only separates the incoming television signal, but also enhances its power.
When buying a splitter, pay attention to the attenuation level, which is indicated in decibels both on the labeling of the device itself and in the accompanying instructions. The lower the value of this indicator, the better. If you can see the frequencies of the received channels in the TV’s menu, remember the highest value from them and check that it falls into the frequency range of the selected device.
How to connect an antenna splitter
All that is needed to connect a second TV, except for the device itself, is a television cable, mounting brackets (if the cable will be attached to the wall), a sharp knife, an ordinary tape measure and antenna plugs (according to the number of additional TVs). First, select the place in the apartment where the antenna splitter will be placed. It is best to use for this special sockets mounted on the wall of the room. Then we measure the number of meters from this point to each of the two televisions, summarize, add a couple of meters to the reserve and buy the antenna cable of the desired length . Now it needs to be cut into the required pieces, from the ends of which the outer shell is removed with a knife, and the braid is bent outward into the uncleaned part.
After that, instead of the plug, which is located at the end of the old
coaxial cable, a splitter for the antenna is connected, and pre-prepared pieces of cables for all television receivers are connected to it. Then all these wires are fixed motionless using brackets or cable channel skirting. The last thing left to do is turn on all the devices and check the quality of the received signal.