I have channels that no longer come in that I use to recieve and its progressively getting worse. I had a knowledgable technician (suprisingly) come out and evaluate my problem, he stated that the signal was below what was acceptable for the box to decode the channels. Channel 117 was suppose to be at 100 and was short by 6db. My mother in law lives across the street and is having the same channels drop out the same time as mine. I have lost confidence in dealing with comcasts tech support and service team as I can never get in touch with someone who can resolve my issue. I cant even get them to come out as I have been stood up the past 3 times they were suppose to come out, but I dont want to switch to satellite. I like the service when it works and dont have any problems other than this.

The feed from the street is not split until it reaches my US tec panel and then splits out to my tv locations. If I take a 2 way splitter and connect the box feed to the low loss leg I still have the same problem, but if I couple the feed to the cable box feed it works fine. I believe that comcasts output is the problem not my wiring infrastructure. I know elementary fundamentals about RF but want to know if I can purchase a RF amplifier that doesnt overload my signal and create more problems, from what I understand the signal being too strong can be an issue, hence the reason for chokes. So can I purchase an adjustable or low output RF amp? TIA

Is the signal coming in the house (before any splitters or amplifiers) at an acceptable level, according to Comcast's techs? And I don't just mean "it works with the cable box", as the box would probably work at a signal strength that should not considered acceptable as an incoming feed level.

I had an issue with signal strength at my house, but in this case the problem was almost entirely caused by a low level feed coming off the street - and it kept getting weaker as the months went by.

In the end a friend who works at the cable company solved my problem by putting in a higher strength tap, replacing the long length of RG6QS coming off the street with RG11, and installing a high quality amplifiier inside on the line that goes to the digital box. The signal after the amp is too hot for the Channel Plus no-loss splitter that feeds all my analog sets, so they're split off in advance (and the box can't go through the splitter since I had earlier purchased the non-bidirectional model).

Everything's now perfect - a happy digital box and cable modem, and crystal clear analog.

Im not sure what the acceptable signal would be coming in, but it is above what the cable box is required to have. Do they allow for signal loss so that they can have multiple recievers split from a non amplified splitter? This is the issue I face, does the cable company take into consideration that the feed will be split and should or shouldnt be amp'd in their eyes? Is what the box requires coming in from the street acceptable or should there be an allowance for a loss?

check this out [Link: channelplus.com]

short and sweet, splitters will cause a loss of 3.5-9 dB and every hundred feet of RG-6 will loose an additional 6 dB and on top of all of that you will have freq. rolloff to deal with too.

[Link: openhousesystem.com]

[Link: openhousesystem.com]

Specifically, for splitters:

2-way splitter = 3.5db loss on each leg
3-way splitter = 7db loss on 2 legs, 3.5db on 3rd
4-way splitter = 7db loss on all 4 legs

Any more splits than that and you typically get into amplified splitters.

As for what is considered acceptable and whether they take possible splits and line length into account... only they would be able to answer that. I'm surprised that the tech that came out didn't attempt to fix the low signal strength by sticking on an amplifier, installing higher quality splitters, or even fiddling on the street.

Specifically, for cable companies:

Cable companies are monopolies granted the privelege of operating in your area by a local governing body.

Call the cable company, and tell the person you talk to that you have had technicians come out, but they have not understood the problem, and you need someone with instruments that give more information and better understanding of the situation. Tell them a person across the street has the same problem, so it is a problem with their network, not with your wiring. Tell them that if they cannot send someone out with the expertise to solve the problem, you could gather signatures from the two blocks or more worth of paying customers, and submit those signatures to the city council (or similar for your area) noting that requested service has not been carried out.

I talk tech, so I have never had to go that far. I have had to explain the situation to an installation supervisor, and have even had one come out to determine the problem, but you might have to treat them like the proverbial donkey and hit them over the head with a 2x4 to get their attention.