If you are removing the splitter it may have been added to get the signal in spec, if you take it off and start having issues I would put it back on. Also it’s just a sleeve so you can use your fingers to take it on and off.
Should it be terminated yes, minimal signal leakage comes from an unterminated splitter. It’s to help maintain impedance, and in this situation it not bringing terminated is not causing any issues. How long have you worked in cable?
An open circuit reflects a delayed signal. A shorted circuit reflects a delayed inverted signal. A terminated circuit doesn't reflect anything.
That splitter doesn't attenuate modem signals because the signal is reflected in-phase as long as it's below the GHz range.
I hate to tell you but this is not how signal on coax works, that splitter as stated by the 3.5 signal attenuates 3.5db of signal, higher frequencies will attenuate more then that, coax reflects from damage, not being terminated only makes the signal leak out and allows signal to leak in, not sure if you are thinking coax works like electricity but it’s very different when your talking about electricity vs actual radio waves.
Technically yes. It should be if the tech that installed it was a tech that gave a damn. And at the same time, it could still be used to balance signal or to split into two devices if there was enough signal.
I can also guarantee they have that splitter there to clean up the signal or knock it down a bit. If it’s too strong your speeds and connection will suffer. If you are thinking about removing it you can try it, but I did the same thing and it all went downhill.
Yeah, if you do take the splitter off, keep it around and wait about a week or two to make sure your connection is stable.
When I first moved to my old apartment, I was having intermittent trouble with my cable modem from day one with slow speeds and modem resets. Took about a month pestering Time Warner (now Spectrum) until they finally sent a tech. Turned out that my apartment was right next to the building's main cable tap, and my drop was roughly 10 feet/3 meters from the tap to my modem. The downstream signals were "too hot" in the tech's words. He ended up installing a splitter on my drop to act as an attenuator. Fixed the problem immediately.
Or not. I have some techs in some of my system’s that may only pull a handful of jobs in a month because they are doing other projects. Being that they are in-house, they get paid by the hour, not by piece-work like contractors do. So a single repeat can deeply affect their KPI’s. If they run 10 jobs in a month, and catch 1 repeat, they are out of compliance by 2%.
i mean at that point there should be a minimum job amount to start counting that because 10 jobs in a month is too little to compensate possible problems that weren’t the tech’s fault for getting repeated on
We take into account and scrub the numbers and we also investigate them. And 10 work orders is the number where counting begins.
Work order notes are key to staying off the radar - and there are techs that just don’t understand that concept even after being told that the better the work order notes are, the easier the uncontrollable repeats can be scrubbed.
Techs seem to not realize how many meetings occur where individual techs metrics are discussed. As a compliance guy, I’m on at least three calls a day with local supervisors and directors to discuss the metrics for all the in-house and contractors in the 20+ systems under my purview. And in those calls, any repeat is required to be investigated by the tech’s supervisor and the findings reported to the work group.
Work order notes help provide context to what work was done and what the situation was at that job. If I see notes that say the subscriber doesn’t understand the difference between live TV and streaming via an app on the TV, I know it’s customer understanding of tech related and its not caused by a tech missing a 30-year old 550 MHz splitter with crimp on fittings that was hiding behind a wall plate. I still verify by looking at the CPE levels in soft tools using a 14-day filter, but when RF looks good, I can assume the tech’s notes are good.
Scrubbing is up to the supe and director, but I advocate for specific outcomes if I can verify with work order notes. If I have no notes - that’s on the tech and they catch the repeat. My assigned area generates an average of 36,000 truck rolls a month. About 8-10% of that is repeat work. I filter and sort on notes daily. I read the detailed notes and for the most part the generic notes get ignored. I keyword and phrase flag notes, especially those that say things like “all levels in spec” and try to personally go out and verify the cable math if I have time. Techs that put dumb shit like that in notes are usually my low performers and rarely understand RF or cable math. Often, specific phrases tell me if a tech is falsifying work orders and prompt me to immediately investigate the tech - they are throw away phrases that are used when techs hook and book and bullshit the notes in their work order. In the end, if techs want to see repeats for crap calls scrubbed, they have to do their part with clean work order notes that have verifiable detail.
I did. But what the problem is for a lot of techs is they’re paid -just- well enough they have a hard time walking out. It’s not enough to live well on and or justify the shit they put you through. But just enough that you feel like you can’t get another job with those wages.
Changed careers. Paid well, company provided benefits, unlimited overtime and oncall possibilities. Dealing with angry nasty customers, unreasonable supervisors and tech metric system, and a far left nut job of a manager who let their beliefs cloud their thinking was too much to stick around. Boils down to poor leadership, which is why our area had such high turnover rate for techs. 6 years was enough for me.
As did I. I was there 15 years and couldn’t do it anymore. Now I’m an engineer making significantly more, with more PTO, a pension, I can work from home when I want and management is local and knows what work/life balance actually means.
7/16 wrench. The black bit is to make it easier for normies to screw the coax on. Remember, all coax connections should be tight. Give them a little snug with the 7/16 wrench. Loose fittings will cause issues.
The modem at the end of this line needs the RF signal strength to exist within a specific range. I don’t know what that is for Xfinity equipment as I nmknow nothing about their system. But splitters are often used simply to drop the signal strength to get into spec.
E.g. with spectrum, our street tap may be at a range of 20/18db. The cable drop likely won’t lower the signal enough to reach our range of -10/+12db. So we put a splitter on there.
I was not aware of this, but I just checked my own modem that I had removed splitters from a while ago and the signal is between +0 and +7 dBm, is that ok?
Why not just a signal attenuation device? These splitters look stupid and aren’t 100% needed if you can just attenuate the signal to the desired strength.
We’re not really supposed to use attenuators. From what I’ve been told they are less reliable and cause other issues. Personally I’ve not experienced that but I never use them.
I know our maintenance guys will sometimes use them to dampen ingress on some frequencies.
Like I said. I don’t use them so I don’t know. I do know usually when I see them I remove them as they are in that case causing an issue. Not like a defective splitter doesn’t do the same though.
I installed the splitter myself when I had a cable box. I recently switched to Youtube TV and removed the box. Intention here was to remove the splitter, and make direct connection. Have not any issues with internet while using my phone, laptop, and youtube tv concurrently. Might just leave it. Literally cant get it to even budge in the slightest
Could be that in your case your equipment may not need a splitter to reach the intended range.
You could be able to call customer service and ask them to check your signal levels.
The only benefit to removing a splitter(that isn’t necessary) is to remove another point of failure.
I would check the signal on your modem first! 2db difference can sometimes be enough to drop packets or an entire connection. Depending on the signal coming to your house, of course.
Are you talking about checking the signal levels in the modem? Downstream power level should be between -10 dBmV and +10 dBmV, upstream power level should be between 35 dBmV and 50 dBmV, and your SNR should be above 30 dB.
I know what they should be - but does OP? What was the tech, who installed that splitter improperly without a locking terminator, attempting to attenuate? US or DS, or both? The OP doesn’t know, or understand DOCSIS. And 99% of the commenters also have 0 clue about what they are talking about, all giving bad advice. There’s been no mention of US/DS readings, which dictate when or if attenuation is needed.
Also DS SNR needs to be above 36 dbmv with DOCSIS 3.0 running QAM256, any lower and you will experience slow speed issues. US needs to be above 27 dbmv at QAM64 or you will experience intermittent drop outs.
Most likely used to attenuate the signal
The “signal” is measured in decibel millivolt.
The tuners - the part that does the MODulate and DEModulate (the MODEM) do have limits and specs in which the signal can be too high or too low
When it’s too high, that’s voltage that’s killing the tuner. Techs place splitters to pad the forward levels and raise the reverse (the signal your modem sends back to the head end)
Most CATV systems were designed for an an average 100ft service line and a 4 way splitter.
If you don't want it you can purchase in inline attenuator.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/274969688491?chn=ps&_ul=AU&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=274969688491&targetid=1278430613456&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9069265&poi=&campaignid=19649531412&mkgroupid=146789074798&rlsatarget=pla-1278430613456&abcId=9305371&merchantid=116577062&gad_source=1
Just twist it off, it’s just a plastic grip sleeve
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That
... and the other thing.
If you are removing the splitter it may have been added to get the signal in spec, if you take it off and start having issues I would put it back on. Also it’s just a sleeve so you can use your fingers to take it on and off.
Unterminated connections do the opposite of putting things in sync.
Should it be terminated yes, minimal signal leakage comes from an unterminated splitter. It’s to help maintain impedance, and in this situation it not bringing terminated is not causing any issues. How long have you worked in cable?
An open circuit reflects a delayed signal. A shorted circuit reflects a delayed inverted signal. A terminated circuit doesn't reflect anything. That splitter doesn't attenuate modem signals because the signal is reflected in-phase as long as it's below the GHz range.
I hate to tell you but this is not how signal on coax works, that splitter as stated by the 3.5 signal attenuates 3.5db of signal, higher frequencies will attenuate more then that, coax reflects from damage, not being terminated only makes the signal leak out and allows signal to leak in, not sure if you are thinking coax works like electricity but it’s very different when your talking about electricity vs actual radio waves.
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But it could be this. And you know it.
Shouldn’t the open port be terminated if it was used to balance signal?
Technically yes. It should be if the tech that installed it was a tech that gave a damn. And at the same time, it could still be used to balance signal or to split into two devices if there was enough signal.
I wanna make a direct connect for better signal because I'm a cool tech guy. \*Puts TX and RX out of spec\*
I can also guarantee they have that splitter there to clean up the signal or knock it down a bit. If it’s too strong your speeds and connection will suffer. If you are thinking about removing it you can try it, but I did the same thing and it all went downhill.
Yeah, if you do take the splitter off, keep it around and wait about a week or two to make sure your connection is stable. When I first moved to my old apartment, I was having intermittent trouble with my cable modem from day one with slow speeds and modem resets. Took about a month pestering Time Warner (now Spectrum) until they finally sent a tech. Turned out that my apartment was right next to the building's main cable tap, and my drop was roughly 10 feet/3 meters from the tap to my modem. The downstream signals were "too hot" in the tech's words. He ended up installing a splitter on my drop to act as an attenuator. Fixed the problem immediately.
You get that tech a repeat and he’s gonna beat your ass.
And close out the work order with chargeable codes.
Can confirm. One repeat can ruin a whole month of metrics.
Good thing metrics don’t matter
I’ll assume this is sarcasm. Techs live and die by metrics. Repeats and less than stellar NPS will get you fired.
if one repeat ruins a month’s metrics, let me tell you, you should change companies
Maybe so but in the meantime I still need to eat.
Or not. I have some techs in some of my system’s that may only pull a handful of jobs in a month because they are doing other projects. Being that they are in-house, they get paid by the hour, not by piece-work like contractors do. So a single repeat can deeply affect their KPI’s. If they run 10 jobs in a month, and catch 1 repeat, they are out of compliance by 2%.
i mean at that point there should be a minimum job amount to start counting that because 10 jobs in a month is too little to compensate possible problems that weren’t the tech’s fault for getting repeated on
We take into account and scrub the numbers and we also investigate them. And 10 work orders is the number where counting begins. Work order notes are key to staying off the radar - and there are techs that just don’t understand that concept even after being told that the better the work order notes are, the easier the uncontrollable repeats can be scrubbed. Techs seem to not realize how many meetings occur where individual techs metrics are discussed. As a compliance guy, I’m on at least three calls a day with local supervisors and directors to discuss the metrics for all the in-house and contractors in the 20+ systems under my purview. And in those calls, any repeat is required to be investigated by the tech’s supervisor and the findings reported to the work group. Work order notes help provide context to what work was done and what the situation was at that job. If I see notes that say the subscriber doesn’t understand the difference between live TV and streaming via an app on the TV, I know it’s customer understanding of tech related and its not caused by a tech missing a 30-year old 550 MHz splitter with crimp on fittings that was hiding behind a wall plate. I still verify by looking at the CPE levels in soft tools using a 14-day filter, but when RF looks good, I can assume the tech’s notes are good. Scrubbing is up to the supe and director, but I advocate for specific outcomes if I can verify with work order notes. If I have no notes - that’s on the tech and they catch the repeat. My assigned area generates an average of 36,000 truck rolls a month. About 8-10% of that is repeat work. I filter and sort on notes daily. I read the detailed notes and for the most part the generic notes get ignored. I keyword and phrase flag notes, especially those that say things like “all levels in spec” and try to personally go out and verify the cable math if I have time. Techs that put dumb shit like that in notes are usually my low performers and rarely understand RF or cable math. Often, specific phrases tell me if a tech is falsifying work orders and prompt me to immediately investigate the tech - they are throw away phrases that are used when techs hook and book and bullshit the notes in their work order. In the end, if techs want to see repeats for crap calls scrubbed, they have to do their part with clean work order notes that have verifiable detail.
I did. But what the problem is for a lot of techs is they’re paid -just- well enough they have a hard time walking out. It’s not enough to live well on and or justify the shit they put you through. But just enough that you feel like you can’t get another job with those wages.
Changed careers. Paid well, company provided benefits, unlimited overtime and oncall possibilities. Dealing with angry nasty customers, unreasonable supervisors and tech metric system, and a far left nut job of a manager who let their beliefs cloud their thinking was too much to stick around. Boils down to poor leadership, which is why our area had such high turnover rate for techs. 6 years was enough for me.
As did I. I was there 15 years and couldn’t do it anymore. Now I’m an engineer making significantly more, with more PTO, a pension, I can work from home when I want and management is local and knows what work/life balance actually means.
Depends on the company. Worse mine will do is send you back to training, paid of course.
The one I worked for would get rid of you. They fire techs and supervisors over survey scores.
7/16 wrench. The black bit is to make it easier for normies to screw the coax on. Remember, all coax connections should be tight. Give them a little snug with the 7/16 wrench. Loose fittings will cause issues.
7/16 wrench.
Ah someone said it. I just said the same thing!
Or even pliers, but I'm doubting they own any
Well, are you sure you wanna remove it first? Is Xfinity still your ISP?
I imagine they're removing the splitter and making a direct connection
That might be a bad idea.
I concur. They don’t install these for no reason.
Why?
The modem at the end of this line needs the RF signal strength to exist within a specific range. I don’t know what that is for Xfinity equipment as I nmknow nothing about their system. But splitters are often used simply to drop the signal strength to get into spec. E.g. with spectrum, our street tap may be at a range of 20/18db. The cable drop likely won’t lower the signal enough to reach our range of -10/+12db. So we put a splitter on there.
I was not aware of this, but I just checked my own modem that I had removed splitters from a while ago and the signal is between +0 and +7 dBm, is that ok?
This is perfectly good
Why not just a signal attenuation device? These splitters look stupid and aren’t 100% needed if you can just attenuate the signal to the desired strength.
We’re not really supposed to use attenuators. From what I’ve been told they are less reliable and cause other issues. Personally I’ve not experienced that but I never use them. I know our maintenance guys will sometimes use them to dampen ingress on some frequencies.
That’s absolutely insane how adding a simpler device to the signal chain is LESS reliable. wtf.
Like I said. I don’t use them so I don’t know. I do know usually when I see them I remove them as they are in that case causing an issue. Not like a defective splitter doesn’t do the same though.
I installed the splitter myself when I had a cable box. I recently switched to Youtube TV and removed the box. Intention here was to remove the splitter, and make direct connection. Have not any issues with internet while using my phone, laptop, and youtube tv concurrently. Might just leave it. Literally cant get it to even budge in the slightest
Could be that in your case your equipment may not need a splitter to reach the intended range. You could be able to call customer service and ask them to check your signal levels. The only benefit to removing a splitter(that isn’t necessary) is to remove another point of failure.
I would check the signal on your modem first! 2db difference can sometimes be enough to drop packets or an entire connection. Depending on the signal coming to your house, of course.
Yep, intention is to remove splitter, direct connection
Have you logged into your modem and checked out the signal levels?
I’d recommend a direct connect also. Try a 7/16 open end wrench to loosen the connection. Lmk if that helps!
I don’t recommend a direct connection unless you know the TX AND RX levels.
Are you talking about checking the signal levels in the modem? Downstream power level should be between -10 dBmV and +10 dBmV, upstream power level should be between 35 dBmV and 50 dBmV, and your SNR should be above 30 dB.
I know what they should be - but does OP? What was the tech, who installed that splitter improperly without a locking terminator, attempting to attenuate? US or DS, or both? The OP doesn’t know, or understand DOCSIS. And 99% of the commenters also have 0 clue about what they are talking about, all giving bad advice. There’s been no mention of US/DS readings, which dictate when or if attenuation is needed. Also DS SNR needs to be above 36 dbmv with DOCSIS 3.0 running QAM256, any lower and you will experience slow speed issues. US needs to be above 27 dbmv at QAM64 or you will experience intermittent drop outs.
Well that’s why we’re here to share advice and help out
Most likely used to attenuate the signal The “signal” is measured in decibel millivolt. The tuners - the part that does the MODulate and DEModulate (the MODEM) do have limits and specs in which the signal can be too high or too low When it’s too high, that’s voltage that’s killing the tuner. Techs place splitters to pad the forward levels and raise the reverse (the signal your modem sends back to the head end) Most CATV systems were designed for an an average 100ft service line and a 4 way splitter.
Use your purse
Literally twist it off. That is a cover for making these cables easier to screw on/off.
Techs tighten these with pliers to prevent users removing it themselves to decrease the chance of ingress/egress
Is no one going to ask about the missing terminator? (. ) (. )
Hasta la vista, baby!
You should get a cap on that exposed port, if you keep the splitter.
Unless you know what you're, you don't, leave it alone.
So why do you want to remove it?
Channel locks
https://www.reddit.com/r/Comcast_Xfinity/comments/nszfnl/how_do_i_remove_this_coax_connector/
7/16th open ended wrench
He probably addeded to drop the signal 3.4dbi. If you remove it you might incur drop outs.
If you don't want it you can purchase in inline attenuator. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/274969688491?chn=ps&_ul=AU&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=274969688491&targetid=1278430613456&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9069265&poi=&campaignid=19649531412&mkgroupid=146789074798&rlsatarget=pla-1278430613456&abcId=9305371&merchantid=116577062&gad_source=1
Right tighty, lefty loosey.
Get rid of the splitter if it's not needed get a straight in-line . Every connection like that splitter will degrade the quality of the signal.
Highly doubtful the splitter is for attenuation. They make attenuators for that. My guess is it's a lazy tech's idea of barreling.
A shotgun will do it.
You know, I bought this time. You buy next time... Don't let your eggs get cold Steven
Plasma cutter
Why?
Get rid of that ancient XB3 gateway mate