Cut my Sky cable - can I fix it?

[Pigmy Pony]

The ivy up the side of the house has been going mental, to the point where the Sky signal is coming and going, as the ivy engulfs the dish. So I've just been out with my pruning shears and accidentally pruned the Sky cable. How much of a disaster is this? Or like with ivy, will the pruning of the cable make the signal grow back stronger? Thought not :(

Where's the best place to get bits now that Maplins is no more? Thursday is double-Emmerdale day, and when Mrs. P gets back I'm as good as dead

[Bigman80]

You need a coaxial coupler. EBay is likely to be your only hope I'm afraid. No idea where you'd get one these days on the high street

[brian2957]

You might get something at B&Q .

[Stratmangler]

I wouldn't be using any couplers external to the house.
Screwfix have suitable cable and plugs - replace the cable.

[mikeyb]

I wouldn't be using any couplers external to the house.
Screwfix have suitable cable and plugs - replace the cable.Correct, any John's will just let water in, just as easy to replace the cable

[Bigman80]

I wouldn't be using any couplers external to the house.
Screwfix have suitable cable and plugs - replace the cable.Nah, bit of heat shrink on the top and it'll be good as new.

[Stratmangler]

Nah, bit of heat shrink on the top and it'll be good as new.

You have heat shrink.
Daft lad in Chorley isn't likely to have any.

[Bigman80]

You have heat shrink.
Daft lad in Chorley isn't likely to have any.Good point [emoji38]

[walpurgis]

I always smear outdoor cable joins with silicone sealant. Never had a problem.

[struth]

I always smear outdoor cable joins with silicone sealant. Never had a problem.Good impromptu Johnny too. Lol

[Stryder5]

Temporary fix to save imminent death, couplers :)

Gary

[Pigmy Pony]

Thanks for your suggestions guys, but you have little faith in my abilities! Justifiably so, and you're right I don't have any heat shrink. I believe some Chorley citizens use it to keep the sniffer dogs from finding their stash tho.

I ended up going to Yesss Electrical and got a connector which then has a kind of plastic sleeve which snaps around it. This sleeve is filled with some sort of silicone gel, and claims to be submersible. So should be able to cope with the weather. And is stashed under the roof's soffit for further protection. We have Sky back! In all its shitty glory :)

[Stratmangler]

Don'tcha have a normal TV aerial?
Mrs Pony could watch Emmerdale on freeview - you don't have to have shitty Sky for her to watch shitty Emmerdale.

[Spectral Morn]

Water gets into the cable it migrates to the box, box goes bang and maybe a fire. Note I said maybe. Replace the cable from dish into house.

[Pigmy Pony]

Don'tcha have a normal TV aerial?
Mrs Pony could watch Emmerdale on freeview - you don't have to have shitty Sky for her to watch shitty Emmerdale.

No aerial, not had one for a long time. we have an indoor one but her youngest ankle biter (who has moved back in and doesn't seem to be in a hurry to move out) has commandeered it for his telly. Mrs. P would just binge watch the episodes as soon as normal service was resumed :(

[Pigmy Pony]

Water gets into the cable it migrates to the box, box goes bang and maybe a fire. Note I said maybe. Replace the cable from dish into house.

You paint a rosy picture of the future Neil! I have faith in the mass of gel the connector is bathing in, but tomorrow I'll go back up there and give it death with my silicone gun :guns:

[Firebottle]

Well done for getting it back up and running Steve.
An alternative for waterproofing is self amalgamating tape, I used to use it a lot in my amateur days.

[Pigmy Pony]

Thanks Alan, the kindest words I've heard this last 24 hours! Never heard of self amalgamating tape, is it an electrical thing?

[Marco]

Here's a radical thought... Phone Sky, tell them what happened, and ask them to send an engineer out. That's what I'd be doing:)

No way would I be up ladders, fannying about with cables, as unless you know what you're doing, any 'fix' will just be a bodge!

Marco.

[struth]

Thanks Alan, the kindest words I've heard this last 24 hours! Never heard of self amalgamating tape, is it an electrical thing?

think amazon sell it.

[Stratmangler]

Self amalgamating tape can be bought from Halfords.

[Dave W]

Get an external waterproof junction box and put the cable in that. Will protect it from the water etc.

[struth]

think what youve done is fine steve. if its working then it should continue that way, as iys protected from weather and sun anyway.

[Marco]

Yes, but is the signal going to be fully optimised, as it was before?

If not, it will affect signal transmission, and ultimately picture and/or sound quality. That 'what if?' factor would do my head in, unless there was a way of testing for it, using appropriate criteria and apparatus, thus confirming that all is *exactly* as it should be.

Marco [hates bodges, or simply 'making do' - it's either right or it's not].

[struth]

Yes, but is the signal going to be fully optimised, as it was before?

If not, it will affect signal transmission, and ultimately picture and/or sound quality. That 'what if?' factor would do my head in, unless there was a way of testing for it, using appropriate criteria and apparatus, thus confirming that all is *exactly* as it should be.

Marco [hates bodges, or simply 'making do' - it's either right or it's not].

might lose a bit, but maybe not enough to be obvious until weather turns bad. time will tell but at least the mrs is getting her progs and steve is out of dog house

[Green]

If you do go with couplers, heatshrink will still suffer from ingress of water. Useless for outside use in my opinion. If you can get hold of denso tape you are laughing. I've never seen a coupling fail using that as a dealer, in any weather.

Don't get it on your clothes!

[Marco]

might lose a bit, but maybe not enough to be obvious until weather turns bad. time will tell but at least the mrs is getting her progs and steve is out of dog house

Sure, but why not just call a Sky Engineer out, and get the job done properly? Losing signal quality with any kind of bodged job would for me be an unacceptable compromise. Anyway, regardless, I hope he get the issue fixed to his satisfaction ASAP!:cool:

Marco.

[struth]

£65 call out fee for starters at a guess. Might not be much to you but it is to many if you can fix it for a fiver. Also there is a wait

[Marco]

Ok, then if it were me, I'd fix it the best I could, so as not to miss out on viewing time, then I'd call a professional out to do the job properly.

For me, it's only a valid 'fix' for a fiver, if it results in as good a job as a professional would do [with zero signal degradation], and of course that would include any competent TV/Satellite installation company.

The daftee shouldn't have let the ivy get so overgrown in the first place, or worn his glasses to see what he was cutting!:ner::D;)

Marco.

[Pigmy Pony]

Here's a radical thought... Phone Sky, tell them what happened, and ask them to send an engineer out. That's what I'd be doing:)

No way would I be up ladders, fannying about with cables, as unless you know what you're doing, any 'fix' will just be a bodge!

Marco.

I have two jars, one labelled 'things I want', and the other is 'things I need'. Jar two is empty since I bought new tyres for the van, so I would have to raid jar one to pay the Sky bloke. Then I would have no cash for that outfit you insisted I buy for your next "party".

So it's not a matter of me being tight and bodging to save a few quid, It's your fault for having such an unreasonable dress code :(

And as with a lot of things, you don't 'know' what you're doing till you do it. Also I have no fear of ladders, climbing is one of my few talents :)

[Pigmy Pony]

Get an external waterproof junction box and put the cable in that. Will protect it from the water etc.

That is effectively what the gel-filled plastic capsule is, that now houses the connected cable.

[Pigmy Pony]

Yes, but is the signal going to be fully optimised, as it was before?

If not, it will affect signal transmission, and ultimately picture and/or sound quality. That 'what if?' factor would do my head in, unless there was a way of testing for it, using appropriate criteria and apparatus, thus confirming that all is *exactly* as it should be.

Marco [hates bodges, or simply 'making do' - it's either right or it's not].

I did test the results, using appropriate apparatus (my eyes and ears), and as I can detect no degradation, it IS exactly as it should be :)

I'm bracing myself for an education now, when I say surely with this you either have your signal or you don't. when you plug your telly into the wall socket, does the plug not degrade the picture/sound? With all the electrical and signal connections in your hi fi chain, is it not a miracle that you get any music at all? And I have no reason to believe that the connector's materials are inferior to the cable that Sky use.

Btw the ivy isn't really ivy, it's called clematis or something, and it's just gone mental this last few weeks.

[Pigmy Pony]

If you do go with couplers, heatshrink will still suffer from ingress of water. Useless for outside use in my opinion. If you can get hold of denso tape you are laughing. I've never seen a coupling fail using that as a dealer, in any weather.

Don't get it on your clothes!

Absolutely. I did once use denso tape, and it does look nasty, like a bandage soaked in dog shit and glue. And I did underestimate its ability to ruin any clothes it touches. Effective gear though, as you say.

[nonuffin]

I recently had to make a repair to the gable end where the TV aerial and SKY satellite dish are mounted. The TV aerial wasn't too difficult to sort out, but I sure as heck wasn't going to pay SKY around £70 to realign the dish after the wall repair. There is a built-in signal strength meter in the HD box software anyway to make small adjustments to dish alignment.

I decided to take out the 2 bolts that held the dish onto the wall then put 4 new bolts into the correct corner mounting holes and signal strength actually increased when I had finished, even though it was a bastard of a job drilling the holes with the brackets and dish in the way.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this or not, but the cable(s) also carry 12 volts DC out to the LNB(s) to power them as well as the inbound satellite signals.

[paulf-2007]

Temporary fix to save imminent death, couplers :)

Gary
Death from a coaxial sat cable hahahahaha

[Stryder5]

Death from a coaxial sat cable hahahahaha

Sorry I misled you, my intention was "to avoid imminent death from wife, use couplers".

Glad you found it humerous.

Gary