What happens when CATV Maintenance sweeps?

[@F0X_1N_S0X]

Absolutely love the troubleshooting videos with this meter. I am relatively new to maintenance myself and these videos are very informative. Great Job!

[@lukassvardkvist9161]

idk how I ended up here. Been in the field 11 years and use this daily. KZbin I guess

[@PlymouthVT]

I really love using the JDSU Smart Id's when sweeping an inhome. My drop from the pole was getting old so a Spectrum cable guy rolled out there still using 6300 meters. He was blown away when i showed him my 630 and how I was seeing ingress etc on the drop then I got him to install a smart id on the end of the drop at the pole and showed him the sweep. He said they were getting the Viavi's soon but all the guys weren't sure about it looked complicated. He said I am now!

[@calenbolo]

Really getting into the weeds there, we just replace them if noise is causing timeouts tiling etc I just replace them, or check fitting wall plates, some techs will do a deep dive but routing hammers us on the drip routing systems

[@dandifusco1868]

who the hell would put a thumbs down on these videos? I'll tell you. A know it all that doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. My man, your videos are awesome and I find extremely helpful!

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Thanks for the positive words :) Glad you like the videos.

[@flaviogutman8671]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I'm newbie CATV tech and I'm having a hard time getting all those concepts.

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Thanks for watching. Hope they are helpful!

[@loginuser010]

Nice video. I'm a MT and noticed your BERs on ch 121,122,123. I've just run into that myself and trying to track down. Ch 120 and below and 124 and above are fine. Tentative theory: off air interference. I used a dipole with ONX Spectrum mode and see impulse burst up to +20 dB in that 770-800 MHz range. Luckily our plant is fairly tight.

[@jaydoublebusy]

4g LTE leak?...their 20mhz wide and generally in the 700+ mhz range..

[@crappyatlife]

@@jaydoublebusy thats exactly what it is. When running onecheck at my job I used to have to walk away so my phone wouldn't cause a fail on 121

[@jaydoublebusy]

@@crappyatlife If the system is sealed and youre running a proper test that shouldnt happen.If it does you have a shoddy meter.I only see it when theres plant noise.Ill acrually pick it up off my meter pig tail and watch the haystacks.Shows maybe -16 dbmv sporadically too on single channel

[@calenbolo]

On our plant mostly, we’ve moved the OFDM to the end, and really is terrible for causing tiling on most set top boxes, as well as 3.1 modems. Interesting picking the brain of system or maintenance techs and learning from them

[@AZAce1064]

Looks like Cox plant in Sun City 1212 pad and even that gravel looks familiar.

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

*wink

[@bryblob]

Can you go over reverse sweep? When I first started as a maintenance tech I was shown by a veteran that is now my supervisor. It was kind of the same deal

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Hopefully in the future I will get an opportunity to make that video for you.

[@TheCoolbluecat81]

Have any videos on tracking pre and post errors on CATV plant? Also on resolving FLUX issues?

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Derek Moody not yet. I usually work on videos as I come across them and the conditions are right. (And if i remember to record it). But I will keep it in mind for the future.

[@aaronsookdeo703]

so when im sweeping i need to reference at the node and make sure i keep my sweep close as possible to the node? also say for example at my 4th amp in cascade 3 taps in, i have a customer with low mer, i would reference at that amp and sweep forwward out of it?

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

aaron sookdeo - ideally you would like to keep your sweep as flat as possible across all amplifiers to ensure you have Unity gain. Any dips or roll offs mean something is not right. Low MER off one or two taps can usually be isolated without sweeping. Generally it's good up until the point that it is not because something is wrong. You can usually divide and conquer to find those types of issues. Although a nice sweep and unity gain especially on a large amplifier Cascade (4 amps) the overall MER health will benefit on all channels.

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

FLEX FITNESS let me add that you could save a reference at an amp then check the proceeding taps but the response will not be flat. It will start to reverse tilt further by each tap you go downstream. But if there is a notch suckout, water damage or roll off you will spot the issue in the sweep response.

[@bryblob]

it seems kind of an elusive thing. He told me that as long as you get that tilt right (on the reverse sweep) return would be right, and it is. It seems were all swapping return pads to adjust return but where does that eq come into play?

[@accelerateddeletions7805]

What kind of meter is this please ? I like the graph and layout.

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Just your typical Viavi One Expert.

[@michaelmawhinney5218]

You got a sub from me brother, keep up the good work.

[@hansssnet]

Was the node in the beginning where the fiber is converted into coax? Is there such thing as coax to coax nodes?

[@TheKjpearson]

Yeah in the 90s they stoped coax only plants and switched to hfc

[@Richs-Repair-2010]

More videos on node please

[@neelsuthar7391]

do you still have to sweep on node+0?

[@Brotschnider]

Is this similar do what spectrum maintenance techs do?

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Yes, sweeping the node and setting unity gain is common across all CATV providers. This is the only way to ensure all the amplifiers are set up properly.

[@PlymouthVT]

The Docsis 3.1 set up in the Tampa area is very different than yours. Here the OFDM bonded channel is a the top of the freq on the end up at 1.2 gig a 100 mhz wide carrier. 3 profiles on the CM. The new Cisco cable boxes are a pia. The Docsis carrier has to be almost exactly at -5 db or the box will just go offline every few days.

[@crappyatlife]

Have they rolled out the ofdma upstream in your area. If so RIP

[@PlymouthVT]

Update few weeks ago the moved the OFDMA carrier the 200 mhz wide carrier into the hole the repack created at 200 to 400 mhz. Lots of things changing in the Tampa/St pete area.

[@calenbolo]

Comcast or Charter ? I’m a FT3 thank you for your service ;)

[@lundsean75]

I have to put in a 20db testpoint in my meter. I hate trying to add 20 to a negative number..😃

[@jcoz5577]

Why do you have a 16 pad in the input? You should have 18 hitting the chip inside the GI MB's, so you should have a 7 pad (based on your 25db input reading) on the input and the rest in the interstage.

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Woah woah. These Motorola MB will catch fire with 18 hitting the chipset lol. These are 4dBmv input amplifiers with an interstage tilt of 14dB 25 over 19 will require a CS6 to get the high band down to match the 19dBmV of the low band. Then I need to pad it down with a 15 pad to bring the flat inputs down to 4dBmV. Then these amps have a 2db reserve gain so we put a 2 pad in the interstage pad location However, if you re watch the video the 16 padding was before I set the amplifier up. I mention that I need to cut away to set the amp up. Then the video cuts right back in to a semi clean sweep after it is all set up.

[@jcoz5577]

@@thebasiccablechannel7464 18 hitting on the high end. So if you're setting up at 120/5, and your inputs on 120 are 23db, you want a 5 pad in the input so 18 is hitting it.

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

18dBmV even at an analog level would be way too much for these Motorola 100s amplifiers. They require a 4dBmV digital Our Line extenders require 11dBmV. You have to be referring to different amplifiers. 18dBmV is a lot of signal for any amplifier. Defeats the purpose of amplifying it if it has to be that much power going into them.

[@jcoz5577]

@@thebasiccablechannel7464 we set ours up at 18 on MBs and 21 on LEs

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Digital or analog levels? What is the model of your amplifiers?

[@PlymouthVT]

Hello I have a 630 and cant find any training video's on the Sweepless Sweep option which my meter has. I wonder if you could touch on that please. Love your videos your a great trainer and I subbed a while ago. Thanks!

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Sweepless sweep is similar to regular sweep except instead of using hidden carriers tucked between channels, the sweepless sweep uses the acual downstream channels as a reference. So you will want to get your output levels perfect then go into sweepless sweep and save a reference. Then at each amp look at the reference and make sure it is flat because that means the output levels would then match where you started.

[@PlymouthVT]

Thanks alot love your videos best on KZbin. Keep 'em coming sir!@@thebasiccablechannel7464

[@k9nmt]

Do more videos Dosty!

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Brent Reynolds I will be working on some here in a few weeks! Recovering from an injury for now. Thanks for being a fan!

[@k9nmt]

The Basic Cable Channel Awesome man, I'm new in maintenance so I like to learn whatever I can.

[@ZCorum]

Good info. Thanks.

[@rajacable70]

Hello sir Ji can you please help me

[@Maiden4eva1995]

did you start as a field tech?

[@PlymouthVT]

as of 11/20 Spectrum now has new CPE amplifiers the issue is the upstream carriers are to powerful they must be no bigger than 50 db. These new amps have unity gain on the upstream limits the upstream amplification. Model number Antronix VRA900B/AC. Pain for installers now. With Stratasync on the Viavi there holding all the techs to a much higher qualification level.

[@rajacable70]

Yes. Are you help me

[@banshee6271]

In our office we started doing full sweep on both forward and return. What a utter fiasco it's been! We keep arguing with management about there insistence on how when sweeping you don't need to worry about the levels being perfectly balanced at every active as long as the sweep scan pass. They want us to stop looking at the full scan for balancing and want us to balance to the zero marker on sweep and let the levels be what they are when it's done. It's getting me to the point of looking for a new job I'm hating it so much. They keep preaching that we've been balancing over imperfections for years and blah blah blah but when I complain that even though I made the sweep scan pass my highest channel is now multiple db low they tell me don't worry about it.

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

We had a time where we had not so many sweep points and it would skip over large amounts of channels. I got into using sweepless sweep because it hits every channel as it uses each channel as a sweep point. I even proved my case to them it was missing water damaged feeder that regular sweep was missing. Luckly leadership was awesome and jumped on board.

[@rajreaganbrunsbruns7167]

Sir can you please please please help me

[@raveluth9467]

What is the formula for max to min? I thought it was something like (cascade number) + 4 divided by something.... its been YEARs since i've done that and can't remember the formula. Anyone know what i am talking about?

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Rave Luth N+2/2

[@robertolantigua3945]

The Basic Cable Channel if you dont mind detailing that a bit. I will be working in a sweep project soon and will like to get ahead of the curb as a first timer doing this.

[@orlandoserrano1310]

good job, thanks you

[@timcat1004]

Kinda pointless when you already know you have an open sheath under a paved driveway and five years later it's still not replaced.

[@rajacable70]

Can you please help me sir

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Ok?

[@rajacable70]

I'm waiting sir ji mail

[@rajacable70]

Can you help me? I love. job cable TV, I love it. Can you get cable TV job in your country? Can you help me?

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

Unfortunately I am just a worker bee and can't hire people. Although there are a lot of cable related jobs in the United States.

[@darronsanderson4837]

Obviously, this dude is in-house, not a sub.

[@shukfahid]

Yikes. That BER value though.

[@calenbolo]

Y6 incoming

[@jerry4012]

How long have you been doing ct5? You should be a fuckin instructor.

[@rajacable70]

Ilke. Cable. TV job and I am waiting. Job. Cable tv

[@thebasiccablechannel7464]

I am not sure I understand what you are commenting.