Hey guys. Do we have anyone here who knows a lot about home electric? Long story short, I’ve been having internet issues, and while Spectrum was out here, they noticed that I am getting some electrical bleeding into my coax lines and its causing excess noise and poorer quality signal. We basically ruled out that it’s coming from the outside, the lines coming into the house are clean but it’s somewhere in the house. I don’t doubt the diagnosis because we pretty much proved it, and he wasn’t aware of this but I had noticed that on my analog HD Antenna, I’ve been getting picture glitching. I thought it was maybe the antenna going bad, but it fits perfect with the symptoms my cable modem is seeing.
I am planning on calling an electrician to help me find this, however I wanted to know if anyone here could maybe help prepare me for things to look out for or to make sure I don’t get taken for a ride. Maybe there’s something simple I can do that I just don’t know about. For reference, the cable tech was using a foreign voltage detector and it was hitting 50 just touching the coax line in the house. He did replace the couplers on all lines coming into the house just to rule out any funny connections.
I am not an electrician. I have done a fair amount of finish electrical though.
I have never heard of bleeding into coax lines, but it sounds possible. So are the coax lines running through the same holes (in the framing) as the Romex wiring?
I think so. Honestly I am not positive. My house is fairly new, built in 2014, however the construction did a pretty shitty job in my opinion. In 2019, we had to replace the entire electrical box because during a rain/wind storm, water leaked in behind the electric box outside, followed down the conduit and dripped all through the entire breaker panel. We had a breaker that kept tripping, when I would reset, it would immediately trip again so I went to replace the breaker. After I removed the cover, I saw and heard water dripping and puddling on the bottom. I put the cover back and called the electrical company and they replaced everything. We also have had the roof already replaced. Shingling fell off twice after storms, the 2nd time it was replaced under hail damage but the roofers said the original place installed the roof wrong and it was peeling up with only 5 years of wear.
Yeah, current builders hire the cheapest and often times, the most derelict sub contractors. I cant believe the stuff that passes inspection. Is your house under any kind of warranty with the original builder.
Check to see if you coax is grounded outside where it enters the building.
Grounding
[820.33] Ground the metallic sheath of coax to the earth (electrode) as close as practicable to the point of entrance to the building or structure (see Figure 820-7 un820-07 820-33.cdr). This doesn’t mean you should drive a separate electrode. The practice of driving a ground rod at a convenient location and not bonding that ground rod to the power grounding electrode system is not permitted.
Coaxial cable cannot be in any raceway or enclosure with conductors of electric light, power, or Class 1 circuits, unless:
The coaxial cable is separated from the power or Class 1 conductors by a barrier ( see Figure 820-17 un820-17 820-52A1bx1.cdr ).
If the power circuit conductors are introduced solely for power supply to the coaxial system distribution equipment. The power circuit conductors must have a minimum of 0.25 in. separation from the coax.
In other applications, you must separate coax by at least 2 in. from any electric light, power or Class 1 circuit conductors-unless you install those electric light, power or Class 1 circuit conductors per a Chapter 3 wiring method (raceway, metallic or nonmetallic
Hey Storm. I used to work for Comcast. What you’re dealing with is most likely ingress. Radio frequency (RF) is everywhere. It’s not just tv, radio and cellular frequency. Electrical appliances, electrical motors…etc. will put out RF.
Coax is shieled, but cuts, cracks and the fittings getting damaged or loose will break that shielding.
Do you own your modem? If not you can call your service and have them look at your event log… The signal to noise (SNR) is a good indicator of ingress… You can also see if you have packet loss.
If you have someone come out ask them if they have an spectrum analyzer, sometimes it’s referred as an RF sniffer.
Also. Do you know of neighbors with the same service and are currently having similar issues.
If your issues are running perfectly align (Modem issues/internet connection/speed ) with the interference you see on a TV with an analog HD receiver you can rule out any hard line issues . The two aligning would make the issue you are having interference via the AIR …not a ground and not wiring issue. They are two independent sources that are getting the same interference… one is a hard line the other gets its signal via the air yet you suffer interference on both .
For the OTA, I would assume the antenna is getting signal fine, but the processing issue is happening when the antenna is plugged into the wall, and running that signal down the coax line to the basement TV. I could probably direct connect my antenna to the TV and try to rule that out.
If you have a digital multi meter, set it to 2 thousand on the ohm scale. Place one probe end (Red or Black ) to a good ground and the other lead to the end of the outside metal end of the coax connector. You should get a reading at or near 0 ohm. If its not grounded properly … it will read wide open
I don’t have one, but I can see if I can borrow one. I really appreciate everyone’s advice. At least I have a good idea of what an electrician should be looking for and good questions to ask.
I own a low voltage wiring company, I have a contract with Comcast and have done work for Charter as well. There’s a multitude of possibilities that could cause this issue… From what I understand in your description, you have antenna service for TV, not cable correct? You just have cable internet? If that’s the case and both are going out at the same time, there’s some sort of surge going on. Two separate services with separate lines that aren’t connected shouldn’t have issues at the same time without electrical interference. Check to make sure your cable lines aren’t running along any electrical lines… There needs to be space between them, at least a few inches if the electric isn’t in conduit. The fact that two different unrelated services being affected at the same time rules out anything on the exterior of the home. Feel free to PM me with any questions
I intended to send you this earlier, but my cell loses data at the park where my daughter was playing this morning. Here’s how you can test for packet loss.
I would rule out packet loss. My ping times are between 25-35, which is normal for me. I have been work from home since March, which means I am working over VPN. VPN is very sensitive to packet loss, I’d lose my connection entirely if I was dropping too many packets. I’ve also run continuous ping tests to ensure that my connection is stable. My primary symptom is, I have a 500mb/25mb down/up internet connection. I will usually see speeds between 450-475 down, and 25 up. My speeds the past few weeks range between 250-350 pretty consistent. At times I will get up to 450, but never any faster. My upload is a consistent 23-25. The cable company was seeing some signal spiking, which is why they sent a tech out. The tech then noticed the signal issues start at the house, everything tested from the neighborhood box (in my backyard) to the house is fine, and even from the house box to the basement is fine, but from that basement line to the wall the cable modem is plugged into is where the issues appear to start. Now that I think about this, I might have another step I could try to rule some things out. I could try moving my cable modem downstairs and plugging into the line coming into the house, then testing the speed and removing the house coax run from the equation.
Isolation testing is an excellent idea. It sounds like your technician did some extensive testing…it’s really helpful to get a good tech like that. So hopefully with the information you’re getting you can nail it down.
I think I have isolated the issue. I noticed upstairs in the dining room, I have 3 sets of outlets. Only one is working, the other two have no power at all. This actually controls my home office. I noticed a week ago, I had to reset the breaker after a power blip, but they are unpowered again. I used a powered on vacuum to walk around the 1st floor and checked every outlet. They are all good, except these 2 different outlets. I verified the circuit they are on by powering off the circuit and confirming the vacuum would turn off, just in case something was mislabeled. I plugged into the good outlet, went downstairs and powered off the circuit. Vacuum turned off. Now that I know there is no current running through that outlet, I then ran a speedtest and could watch the signal. It seems to be running a lot better know. I think I do have some sort of a grounding issue on that circuit and thats why only one set of outlets is working on that circuit. I will call an electrician and get a professional to take a look and see what he can find out.
First and foremost get yourself a good digital multi meter no Homeowner or Man should be without one …Fluke is the best but expensive buy a Klein & get one with a temp probe as they come in super handy .
It’s not a ground issue that would cause a no power problem at 2 of the outlets if 1 of the 3 outlets are working …and besides even if for some reason you had a ground issue at either of those other 2 outlets , ungrounded outlets still produce power
Also don’t assume all 3 outlets are on the same Breaker. The vacuum test you did will only tell you the story behind whatever outlet you have it plugged into.
Forget that they are all in the dining room… and focus more on the wall the outlet occupies instead . What’s on the other side of the wall or walls that the 2 outlets that do not work share ?
If either of those 2 outlets that do not work share a wall with the Kitchen or a Bathroom then a good possibility exists that somewhere in that run that contains the two outlets that are not working in the dining room a GFCI outlet is in the mix ahead of the 2 outlets in the dining room and that GFCI outlet tripped , which would give you a case of no breaker in the panel being tripped and all looks good but accompanied by 3 outlets not working (the 2 outlets in the DR and the mystery GFCI outlet), resetting the GFCI outlet with the little button on the outlet would then get power back to the 2 outlets that are not working …