@naylor2006 @TimCurtis
But as we are debating splitters:- 3 dB is 50% reduction, so we need to look at signal losses in dB;
You could look at the cpc farnell com mercury bx38 high grade low loss tv aerial splitter/combiner, which shows an average loss of 2.5 dB.
Or the screwfix labgear coax male to f plug 2 way t splitter, described as ‘Low Loss’, but with a simply appalling 12 dB return loss in the detailed description which would come out at about 94% signal reduction.
Not that I believe either number, especially as what the Screwfix example shows and what it describes are two different things, but it shows that a little Googling will certainly bring up dB loss figures.
I don’t believe the first one, because if you had two outputs at 2.5 dB and recombined them, you would actually have a stronger signal than the input signal, so your passive splitter would be acting as an amplifier!
And I don’t believe the second one, because it is too poor. 3.5 dB would be a good, and achievable, result.
You can’t rely on what TVs report, as the scales aren’t linear; but the numbers you are getting explain why, subjectively and objectively, we experience nothing like the 50% loss the splitter introduces.
A signal meter, such as is used by an aerial installer, should show accurate numbers though.
I know in the world of music amplification, that splitters don’t introduce the same losses as in TV aerial connections, because the impedances at the two ends are very different; but on 75 ohm aerial cabling, no such factors should intervene.
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*** Longtime YouView box owner, BT Broadband customer, finally an EE TV subscriber ***
