How to Install a Cable Amplifier

By David Lipscomb

A cable amplifier may be necessary for long RG-6 runs.
i coaxial cable image by Albert Lozano from Fotolia.com

Due to distance and signal loss, it is sometimes necessary to install a cable amplifier. These boxes, roughly the size of a deck of playing cards, offer the extra oomph required to push the signal along the wiring, eliminating the lossy effects of splitters and diplexers.

Locate the incoming feed from the cable company. This is typically on the lowest level of the structure or the basement. If there is a confluence of RG-6 cable entering a splitter in the lowest level, this is the service entry.

Disconnect the single RG-6 wire entering the splitter by unscrewing it until free. Screw this cable into the cable amplifier's input terminal.

Screw on a short length of RG-6 cable from the output of the amplifier into the input terminal of the splitter. Plug the amplifier into AC power at this time.

Turn on all the televisions fed by the splitter and adjust the amplifier to achieve the best picture possible.

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