I got back from a service call - static on the phone line, HO wanted two more jacks as well as a coax. Open up the customer side of the NID, wires are corroded, one pops off as I wiggle it. Repaired that. Test, static is on Verizon's end (isn't it always?).
Anyway, I open up the cable box, and there is one barrel connector with a tab/w ground wire - that's it. Cable is RG59, both from the street and disappearing under the house. :confused:
"How many TVs do you have?"
"Four, plus the one in the garage".
I take a look inside the house. Cables are everywhere, popped out of walls, out of the bottom of the hot water baseboard heater frames, etc. Wall plate jacks are laying on the floor in the living room. One thing I do not see is a cable splitter.
Before going under the house, the HO tells me there may be one or more feral cats underneath. Joy. No cats were found, and no splitters either. Huge loops of RG59 are everywhere. I make it about 2/3 the way underneath before my path is blocked by ductwork - of course, I need to be on the other side of that ductwork. I exit the crawlspace.
We go back in for a minute. I ask the HO to turn on a TV. Brand new Vizio 26" flatscreen, picture looks like it is a 70s model w/rabbit ears. She is happy with the picture quality, I'm pretty much thinking "wtf?". She then remembers that there is a cable and phone line behind a cabinent and safe. They too pop up through another baseboard heater frame. Cable (more RG59) is improperly terminated with an obviously slip-joint pliers-crimped fitting, and the phone cable is just bare silvery strands (yes, stranded) of frayed wire all balled up.
I asked her who did the wiring, to which she happily replied "my brother, a few years ago...".
As long as it works, right? :rolleyes:
Jack
