DIY Mechanic: External TV socket
Nigel Hutson advises on how fitting an external TV antenna socket allows you to watch in comfort, even in winter
MANY TV end the signal socket of SITES your – on you coaxial OFFER the simply site’s cable a boosted plug electric into one hook-up into weather, That’s the back bollard all but very in of winter, the and well TV. the in it warmer means other either leaving a window open so the lead can be fed through, or missing unplug it programmes and close the so window. you can It can also mean coaxial cable trailing In addition, through many the caravan. caravans, especially the fixed-bed models, have One more of our than favourite one TV sites point.
offers a boosted TV signal, but we’ve generally been lucky and managed to get
a reasonable signal using the van’s antenna.
However, my parents,
on another pitch, could only get
reception using the boosted signal,
despite having the
same TV antenna. When we’ve been
unable to get a good TV signal, you can guarantee something special will be on! One
solution is a satellite dish, but you still might not receive a signal.
Many caravans have an external
satellite TV cable socket; a few also have a TV aerial socket.
Ours has the external satellite TV connection and satellite connections at each TV point. So is there any reason why this
can’t be used for a TV signal? The simple answer is no. And it’s easy
to adapt the leads to work, too. To do this, you’ll need:
n A length of good quality coaxial cable to form the extension lead, plus a short length (50cm or so) for each TV
n Coaxial plugs
n F plugs – screw-on type Tools needed for the job are: n Stanley knife n Wirecutters
It doesn’t matter if you start with the long or the
short cables, as they’ll end up
having the same connections. At one end, you’ll need
a coaxial plug (male), and at the other, an F plug (1, 2). It’s also worth carrying
a male-to-male coaxial
adaptor in your spares (3), just in case the bollard has a male connection. Once you’ve made up your cables, test they work by connecting the TV (satellite connection in the caravan to TV antenna socket in the TV), and the external cable. I plugged the external cable into a house socket at one end and the
F connector to the van’s satellite connection (4, 5). It worked perfectly at all TV points (6).
But what if your van doesn’t have a satellite connection, as is
the case with my son’s Abbey? This is a bit more involved, but
still quite simple to remedy.
Vision Plus (www.visionplus. co.uk) manufactures an external TV antenna socket (7) which includes 5m of coaxial cable – other makes are also available!
socket to To join avoid coaxial in the adding van cables or a attempting second (one from TV the caravan’s antenna and the other from the external socket), which might cause reception
problems, I bought an isolation switch (8). This allows you to select which input to use –
the caravan’s or the campsite’s.
External socket
Tools n n n bit n Stanley Wirecutters Electric Large and needed 22mm and knife drill small for hole with this cutter 2.5mm job are:
Pozidriv n n Cable Double-sided ties/clips screwdrivers tape
n 2 x coaxial F connectors First, you need to decide where
to fit the external socket. In our case, the caravan’s antenna and
TV point were on the nearside, so we chose to fit the socket low
down on that same side, so that
the coaxial cable would feed into the caravan under the nearside
seat. This also meant the internal cable run would be relatively short.
Vision Plus provides a template
for the various holes that need to be drilled. Once you
decide where the socket is to be fitted, cut out and attach the template to the caravan wall, and carefully drill the holes (10). (Before doing so, double check
this won’t invalidate any warranty!) After removing the cable cover from the inside of the external
socket, screw the back plate and sealing gasket into place, but
only shorter through Next, at the of feed the the bottom large the supplied coaxial hole and and screws. using cable into the the socket the caravan. cover, in place securing Clip before the it attached with attaching the smallest centre in the top and of corners. the the larger screws screws in the
decide Working where inside you’re the going caravan, to fit the it was isolation in an overhead switch. In locker. our case,
connection Now, detach from the the TV amplifier output
and replace it with a section
of coaxial cable (with an F connection at both ends). This
needs to fit between the amplifier
and either outer connection (A or B) on the isolation switch. Next,
the cable to the TV point needs
to be connected to the centre point on the isolation switch.
Feed the cable from the external socket to the isolation
switch (securing it with cable ties if necessary), and after trimming its length, attach an F connector
and secure it to the remaining connection on the isolation
switch (A or B).
Finally, secure the isolation switch unit to a suitable place.
Rather than using the supplied
screws, we used double-sided numberplate tape for this (12).
We tested the installation (14) by connecting the external socket
to a house socket, then switched the input to the caravan’s antenna
(switching on the amplifier if needed). It all worked a treat.
n With thanks to Vision Plus for supplying the external socket