Help with aerial splitters and signal boosters

If you're planning to send digital TV around your house using aerial (co-ax) cable, you may find that you need cable splitters, or a signal booster. On this page, we give you the basics about how to use splitters and boosters.

 

Aerial splitters

If you have a piece of equipment like a Freeview or Sky set-top box, a video recorder, or a TV set that only has one aerial output socket, you may need to 'split' this output so that the aerial can feed two TV sets, not just one. For that, you'll need a co-ax aerial splitter.

We recommend the UHF TV Splitters sold at Maplin (Part numbers JM13P and JM14Q, depending on gender needed). Order online at: maplin.co.uk

NOTE: You should bear in mind that when you feed two or more bits of equipment from a single aerial output socket, there's a good chance that you'll lose some signal - the more aerial cable you add to your system, and the more equipment you connect to, the more chance there is of reducing the signal that makes it to your receiver - this is through cable 'loss' and through interference.

If you're in a strong signal area and use good quality cabling, you should be fine, otherwise, you may want to consider an amplified splitter / booster - see below.

 

Signal Boosters

You have to be slightly careful with signal boosters, as sometimes using one of these can actually make things worse. If you have a poor signal with lots of interference, using a booster will amplify the noise and interference, as well as the signal.

Where they are useful, is for situatiuons where you have an acceptable signal already, but want to make the most of it, or want to feed that signal off to other rooms in your house without losing out through "cable loss".

If you're looking for a signal booster, we'd recommend getting a mains-powered unit that may multiple outputs - so if you want to feed your Sky box to four TV sets, get a one-input, four-output amplified signal booster. Some signal boosters come with a knob to adjust the amplification level, which can be handy for fine tuning

Signal boosters are available from Argos and Maplin Electronics.

Our team's had pretty good results with the SLx range of signal boosters, from Maplin. Pictured to the right is the Slx1 model, which supports one-in, two-out, and allows the signals from a Sky Magic Eye remote control extender to be used.

 

More help

If you need TV aerial cables, boosters or UHF adapters, we recommend either maplin.co.uk or tvcables.co.uk.

Other links:

• Freeview signal: Switch Help Signal FAQ
• Freeview Reception help: Radio and Telly Freeview Advice
• TV in other rooms: Other Rooms FAQ

Answer unclear? Let us know!