Into the Ingress Abyss: Understanding Leaks, Causes, and Consequences (Part 1)

[@jenko701]

As a TV repair person in the 90s we had a customer in an apartment that was getting cable from there neighbor using a log pice of Black and Decker cable .

[@jenko701]

As a TV repair person in the 90s we had a customer in an apartment that was getting cable from there neighbor using a long pice of Black and Decker cable . The funny thing was it had a great picture.

[@Volpefirm]

Thank you for sharing. There are many stories like these. Cable theft is not easy like it used to be due to digital encryption, but the resiliency of cable and RF signals has always been remarkable.

[@EricGrumling]

Had a LP UHF transmitter and 700 MHz cell tower across the street from one of my headends. Had a heck of a time keeping signals out of combining amps. Ended up upgrading the amps but still had to make sure every connector was torqued properly.

[@Volpefirm]

Thanks for story @EricGrumling. I'm sure you had a very tight headend in that region!

[@LorneJamesB]

Id like your take on the practice of leaving inactive customer drops connected at the tap, where other providers have taken over the internal wiring for thier services. Much of our return path noise and adaptive EQ faults come from these unterminated lines

[@Volpefirm]

In my opinion both methods likely need to be implemented. If the cable operator can provide a service to subscriber's who cannot support their in-home wiring, then I think this is win-win. Me personally, I have not issues with maintaining my in-home wiring and my neighbors as well, but I know that my neighbor would not be able to sustain their wiring without me and would need a cable operator-based service. But there are some homes a tech will never be allowed to enter. These are homes that for whatever reason subscribers do not want to allow entry. In these cases, disconnects are necessary in order to ensure good QoE for all other subscribers.

[@turdferguson353]

So direct pickup is what our problem is. Our meters arent insulated very well, and certain areas, close to this radio station 92.5 will fail our ingress scans at 93mhz. Its frustrating

[@Volpefirm]

Hi @mynameisJonas33 Yes, certainly with some of the older meters and possibly with some of the newer ones, they do not have enough internal isolation. I recommend terminating the input and see if they pass the ingress scans. If not, you know there is not enough isolation and you need to take this into consideration. Especially next time when you buy meters, make this part of your evaluation process.

[@LorneJamesB]

Oh, and the painted-over wall plate connector was always a guaranteed ingress/egress location

[@Volpefirm]

Paint does not = RF attenuation :)

[@captainsavahoe3983]

Great content.. I’m learning a lot.😊