Cable Trials

Our cable recently started having issues. Being lazy and not being extremely bothered by it since it was only affecting a few channels, we ignored the problem. Then one long holiday weekend we actually wanted to watch a show on one of the problem channels. It was like watching a broadcast show from 20 years ago. We called the cable company.

First there was the automated system. I entered in all of our information including the main problem which was snow due to a poor signal on all of our televisions. The extremely long wait for a person began. At last, a technician who proceeded to ask me the exact same questions the computer had asked. Upon being told we were experiencing a signal problem on ALL of our televisions, he told me to check the cable connection on one of them. He was not pleased when I questioned him.

Eventually an appointment was made for a technician to come to the house. He arrived relatively on time. I explained (you would think they would read their own notes) how all of our televisions were experiencing a signal problem in one particular channel range.

After demonstrating the problem on our family room television, he determined it must be a loose connection to that TV. He changed out the splitter for that set. I restated that more than one TV had the problem and again was asked to check the picture on the family room TV where he was working. It must be the cable connector which he promptly changed out. Again I mentioned that all of the TV’s had the same problem.

A gleam came into his eye. “All of your TV’s have the same problem? “

“Yes.” Off we went to the bedroom to see that yes that TV too had a bad signal (in fact it was worse than the newer television in the family room). Back to the family room where he checked the cable again.

Finally convinced he went outside. Fifteen minutes later and multiple trips back into the house to see if the picture was any better (he was probably changing those connectors and splitters); he knew what the problem was. We had a signal problem. The solution would be to change out our drop.
The drop it seems is the run of cable from the easement cable box to your house. OK. No problem. The main cable box is located at the northwest end of our lot. The cable comes into our house at the northwest corner next to the gas meter.

Problem. The cable man says legally it has to come in by the meter. Not the gas meter but the electric meter. Why they ran it this way when the house was built, who knows? The electric meter is at the southeast corner of our house. To get to it the cable will have to cross under our chain link fence, under my herb garden, under our invisible fence, across the entire backyard on a diagonal, under the phone line, under the invisible fence, under the chain link fence, under the crown of thorns hedge (good luck with that), and down the side of the house next to the invisible fence and phone line runs to the electric meter. Who wants to make a bet what they will cut or kill?

It gets better. The cable guy cannot run cable through my attic. Therefore he will run a cable from my new cable line next to the electric meter on the southeast end of my house around the house (passing under chain link fences, invisible fences, and other utilities again) back to the connection at the northwest corner by the gas meter. Even though I told him the attic run goes from the northwest outside corner through the attic to the center of the east wall (very near the new box) where the last cable guy dropped the connection down into the master closet.

At the end of all of this my house will be wrapped in coax cable. My plants will be dug up. My cat will be roaming the neighborhood after they cut her fence line and I will not even have a phone line with to call and complain.