Shoutout to the old guy in Dayton who taught me about coax splitters

I was on a job last month, replacing a drop for a customer in a brick house. The signal was weak and I was about to just run a whole new line from the pole. This retired installer, Mr. Jenkins, lived next door and came over to watch. He pointed at my bag and said, 'Kid, you're using a cheap 3.5 dB splitter from the truck stock... that's your problem right there.' He walked back to his garage and came out with this old, dusty 5-1000 MHz splitter. He said he kept it from 'back when they built things to last.' I swapped it in and the signal jumped by 15 points instantly. He didn't brag, just nodded and went back to his yard. Makes you think about the gear we're given now. Anyone else run into a simple fix like that, where the old way just worked better?

4 comments

4 Comments

parker_palmer442mo ago

What gets me is how the cheap stuff changes how we work. We start assuming every weak signal needs a full rewire, when half the time it's just a bad ten cent part in a box. Makes the job harder than it needs to be.

jana_shah1mo ago

Totally feel you on this one. It's wild how a cheap little part can waste hours of your day and make you feel like you're losing your mind. I've seen it happen with coax connectors too, the new ones from the supply house strip out if you look at them wrong while the old ones from the 80s still hold tight. It just grinds my gears that companies save a few cents per part but then pay for a full day's labor to redo a job that could've been a five minute swap. It's like they forget we're the ones out there dealing with their shortcuts.

kimr742mo ago

Ever wonder how much money the company saves by buying those garbage splitters? They probably get them for a buck each and then bill us for the extra truck rolls when the signal is trash. Old guy had it right, they just don't build stuff to last anymore.

knight.dylan2mo ago

My uncle had a 1992 Ford F-150 with the original spark plugs that ran smooth for 25 years. The new ones I bought last year failed in 8 months. It's the same story with everything now, just like kimr74 said about the splitters. They make it cheap so you have to keep buying it.