said by rody_44:I believe that thing marked Amp is nothing but a splice connector. Open that up and that is where the actual comcast signal would be.
I'll try to do that when I get a chance. I did take a closer look and found that it is actually a hard plastic case that may not be easy to open, as it appears to snap together with tabs. It doesn't look like opening it will be as trivial as I'd hope.
said by rody_44:Its not out of the question that a piece of bad coax only a few feet long loses 15 dbs. Even the piece as short as the one going from outside to iinside your garage. The piece at the outside is what is important in comcasts eyes.
As I mentioned before, I get power levels of -4 dBmV just inside the garage, so I'm likely not losing more than 4 dB in the couple of feet between the splice and the inside of the garage. I definitely want to check what signal levels I can get at the splice, though.
said by rody_44:So im guessing all your cables are homeowner installed and the cable company simply put ends on the ones outside.
This was my guess as well; it's good to get confirmation.
said by rody_44:I dont see your cable bonded at all. Not good, especially with a modem.
I would have expected at least the splitter to be grounded, but it isn't. The "Amp" case is lashed to the telephone conduit with a plastic zip-tie, and is not electrically connected to the conduit or anything else as far as I can tell.
My house electrical mains come from underground, and connect to the meter box via a conduit. I'm a bit uncertain about where I can get an optimal ground connection from, although I see a few possibilities (
also refer to pictures below):
1. A copper wire (I think; it's covered in stupid house paint too) with green plastic shielding/insulation that appears to come out of the ground and is not connected to anything on the end I can see. It looks like this could be it; since I don't want to use an exterior coax splitter, should I instead purchase and install a coax ground block between the splice point and attach the green wire to it? Can I verify that the green wire is grounded by touching an ohmmeter to it and to, say, my electrical mains conduit or what I think may be the ground rod?
2. A twisted steel cable of the type I've often seen attached to ground rods with a clamp/electrode. It comes from the ground near the green wire and immediately disappears up under the siding. I suspect this may run to the breaker box in the garage or something.
3. A metal rod (possibly zinc or steel, although it looks a bit rusted on the very top) protruding just a couple inches from the ground, with no electrode/clamp attached. Could this be the ground rod, with everything connecting underground? It does look like the green wire and twisted steel cable come out of the ground just a few inches away, on the house side of the rod.
4. The natural gas meter conduit on the opposite end of the wall has some wires attached to it that come out of the ground right next to it.
Here are some more pictures in case they help:
- Closeup of possible ground connections: »
docs.google.com/open?id= ··· obWZuUGM - note the twisted steel cable near the top left, green wire near top middle, and rod at lower left
- Wider shot of electrical/cable/telephone area: »
docs.google.com/open?id= ··· ETGg4eVk - large conduit on left is electrical mains (with meter at the top), small conduit next to it goes to an RV power outlet, and rightmost conduit goes to telephone connection box. Cable comes from underground near the telephone conduit, and splice box is lashed to the same conduit.
- Even wider shot of the above, showing the electrical meter: »
docs.google.com/open?id= ··· UZ1REVTQ- Even
wider shot of west side of house, with gas meter on right and electrical/cable/telephone on left: »
docs.google.com/open?id= ··· YZFpvTnM