Got a call back to a job I did six months ago and the difference in signal quality was wild

I ran a new drop for a customer last fall, just a standard RG6 quad shield line off the pole to their house. At the time, their signal levels were okay, not great, but within spec. I got called back there yesterday because they were having pixelation on a few channels. I hooked up my meter and their downstream power was a solid 8 dBmV higher across the board, and their MER had jumped up too. The only thing that changed was the weather. It's been super dry and hot here for weeks, which I guess tightened up the cable on the strand and maybe even shifted the pole a tiny bit. It made the whole run just a bit more direct and clean. I had to redo the fitting at the ground block because the change actually stressed the old compression ring. Has anyone else seen seasonal weather swing levels that much on an aerial run?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_adams663d ago

You mentioned the cable tightening up on the strand. That's probably not it, RG6 doesn't really stretch or shrink enough to matter. What likely happened is the change in temperature messed with the amplifier at the node or tap. Those things can drift a lot when it's been super hot for weeks. I've seen a hot amp put out 3 or 4 dBmV higher than it did on a cool day. Your 8 dB jump is big, but if the tap was already running a little hot, the weather could have pushed it over.

rubyschmidt3d ago

Yeah, the "hot amp" thing... I always blamed the drop cables before. But seeing a 3-4 dB swing just from the weather makes that 8 dB jump seem way more possible.