Help splicing/splitting coaxial cable

1) Do you have a "barrel" (female-to-female adaptor) that you can throw in place of the splitter? If you get signal to the one connected TV your crimps are OK.

2) If you pass test #1, find another splitter.

ETA: you may have grabbed a satellite-specific splitter, which is intended for frequencies above broadcast.

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I cut the coax from the hd antenna in my attic and used a compression tool to add new connectors to each of the new ends so I could split the signal to 2 TVs. I've done this before but this time I lost the signal to both TVs.

Any possible way I could have screwed this up? Seems like it's just copper wire so if my new connectors fit and run through the splitter it should work.

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Did you put the connectors on properly? Make sure there is no braid touching the copper. That will ground the signal.

Is the white dielectric flush with the bottom of the fitting? If it isn't, it will work for a little while, but you will eventually experience signal dropouts. If you're running a preamp, the voltage power the preamp will arc across the connection causing the signal to drop out completely.

Get a barrel to see if the signal works without the splitter in order to determine if the splitter is bad.

This is weird I recut the "IN" piece a bit farther up. Got a signal but WAY weaker than the original. Took the splitter out and connected it directly to a TV and getting way less channels than before. This should be the same signal is was getting before. The antenna hasn't moved. FML this was supposed to be easy.

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hd antenna

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Hmmm... shot in the dark here, but is there any chance that antenna has an internal amplifier? If so, it is likely powered from some inline power supply box behind or near the TV, meaning you need to figure out how to hop the power across the splitter.

I looked up that antenna, it is indeed powered. Look at the image below and note the box on the bottom right. It puts power on the coax line running up to the antenna. If you are not getting power to the antenna -- for example if the power-inserter box has a problem -- then you will still get some reception of local or stronger signals even without the amp. Which is what you described.

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Damnit. Coax in the attic has a barrel connector which apparently got knocked loose when I cut it to make the splitter. Ran the line so long ago I forgot I had a barrel connection in the line at all. Total coincidence it loosened at the same time i was working on the line. What a waste of time.

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If you have a barrel on a line, you need to take a 7/16" wrench, some pliers and tighten it past hand tight. Coax may look straight, but it's natural tendency is to want to coil up which causes connections to loosen over time.

Put your pliers on the barrel slots, and turn the coax connection 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn. You will be between 20 and 40 in/lbs. It won't come loose over time.

Each splitter / connector in the systems takes a bit of signal out. If the signal is marginal to begin with, multiple splits may drop the signal below the threshold required to deliver a dependable signal to the set. With analog it was easy - a fuzzy signal told you at least SOMETHING was working. With digital, it's there or it ain't.