Digital cable TV signal amplification ?

[Externet]

Hi.
If a cable TV signal (typically 1mV into 75 Ω) from the service provider is fed to a broadband amplifier, and the output of the amplifier fed to a 'broadband' antenna; could the now-aired signal reach 100ft to a TV receiver antenna?
What power should the broadband amplifier output be for the cable TV signal to reach 2000 feet over the air in line of sight to a a plain TV ? About less than 0.5 Watt ?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Your cable company will make sure enough signal is available for your home. It's also against your TOS to share with your neighbors.

 

[Externet]

This is nothing about sharing nor against any policy; it is a question about having aired TV cable signal on a yacht anchored on the bay, owned by the owner of a house at the shore having legal TV cable service.

 

[Mikebits]

Your cable company will make sure enough signal is available for your home. It's also against your TOS to share with your neighbors.

And don't forget the FCC.
One cannot simply give you a number for what transmit power you need to achieve a specified distance. There are many factors that affect transmit distance. Some of these factors are transmit power, line loss from transmitter to antenna, antenna gain, directionality and height. In addition transmission path loss and receiver sensitivity (Usually specified in MDS,NF, or Sinad) must be considered.

Path loss can be calculated:
PL = 117 + 20log10(F) - 20log10(Ht*Hr) + 40log10(D)
Where
PL = path loss in dBm
F = operating frequency in MHz
Ht, Hr = height of transmit a nd receive antennas (feet)
D = distance between antennas (miles)

 

[BrownOut]

I can't answer your question, and I doubt it would be legal anyway. But I can offer an option: if you have wide area wireless where your yacht is, you can use a web enabled DVR or computer with DVR capabilities at home to stream your programs over the internet to your yacht.

 

[RadioRon]

Hi.
If a cable TV signal (typically 1mV into 75 Ω) from the service provider is fed to a broadband amplifier, and the output of the amplifier fed to a 'broadband' antenna; could the now-aired signal reach 100ft to a TV receiver antenna?
What power should the broadband amplifier output be for the cable TV signal to reach 2000 feet over the air in line of sight to a a plain TV ? About less than 0.5 Watt ?

A quick look at two typical broadband amps designed for cable distribution (Motorola and Terk brands) imply that a typical amp gain is 15 dB. If we add this to your 1mV we get -4 dBm of signal, and for now let's assume that the compression point of such amps is much higher than that (which is a bold assumption). If we feed this to an antenna with some gain, let's say it has 8 dBi gain as an example, then our EIRP will be 4 dBm. Next, lets assume that the television needs a a signal level of -85 dBm (based on SNR of, oh I don't know but I'll guess 15dB and I'll guess that the TV is using an antenna system gain of 0 dBi and that the receiver NF is embedded within that overall 15 dB SNR requirement). So we have a path loss budget of 4 -(-85) or 89 dB. At around 500MHz, this would imply a free space distance of roughly 1400m. However, that only works from one airplane to the other, so let's cut that by half and say that 700m is achievable with everything working very well, which it won't be so cut it by half again and say that 350m is feasible. This is about 1100 feet.
However, and here's the problem, you will also be broadcasting every other signal on the cable (within the bandwidth of your broadband amp and antenna system) so the likelihood of causing interference is huge. This is very bad.

 

[MikeMl]

As as a HAM radio operator and PILOT, I hate people who purposely radiate signals that should NEVER be allowed to leak out of the cable system!!! In fact, I would go on a transmitter hunt to find the source of such radiated interference, turn you in to the FCC, and laugh like hell when you are fined.