Every fault below comes from real call-outs across Durban and surrounding areas. Some have a quick check you can try yourself before booking anyone — where that's true, we say so. When a visit is needed, the diagnosis is done with a signal meter, quoted before work starts, and covered by our 12-month workmanship warranty. New to this part? Start with the coaxial cable & connectors component guide.
1. Water in the coaxial cableE48-32 (intermittent)
What you'll see: Signal degrades noticeably in wet weather and improves in dry spells, getting a little worse with each cycle over months.
Why it happens: Water has entered the cable through an unsealed connector or a damaged outer sheath and is wicking along inside the braid, where it both absorbs signal and corrodes the conductor.
How we fix it: We locate the water entry point, cut back to dry, clean cable, and replace the affected run and connectors with properly sealed quality RG6 — sealing the cause, not just replacing the symptom.
2. Loose or badly fitted F-connectorE30, E48-32
What you'll see: Signal cuts out when the cable is touched or moved, returns when it is jiggled, and fails intermittently for no apparent reason.
Why it happens: An F-connector that is finger-loose, twist-on rather than compression-fitted, sized for the wrong cable, or fitted with stray braid strands shorting the centre conductor.
How we fix it: We cut back and compression-fit correctly sized connectors, torque them properly, and seal any that live outdoors. It is a small job that permanently eliminates a whole category of intermittent faults.
Full loose or badly fitted f-connector troubleshooting guide →
3. Cable run too long — signal lossE30 (intermittent)
What you'll see: Consistently weak signal with no obvious hardware fault, worse on some channels than others, and frequently worse on the TV furthest from the dish.
Why it happens: Attenuation. Coaxial cable loses signal per metre, and the loss increases with frequency — so long runs, or runs in thin cable, starve the far end. Every split compounds it.
How we fix it: We measure loss along the actual run, then fix it correctly: heavier RG11 cable where the distance demands it, a properly specified amplifier where it is genuinely needed, or a re-routed shorter run where one is available.
Full cable run too long — signal loss troubleshooting guide →
4. Rodent-chewed cable in the roofE30
What you'll see: Sudden and complete loss of signal with no weather event to explain it, on an installation that had been entirely reliable.
Why it happens: Rats or mice have chewed through the coaxial cable in the roof space — an extremely common cause of sudden total failure in South African homes, and one that gives no warning at all.
How we fix it: We trace the run to find the break, replace the damaged section, and where possible re-route or sleeve the cable so the same thing is less likely to happen again.
Full rodent-chewed cable in the roof troubleshooting guide →
Symptom doesn't match any of these?
Faults overlap — a "coaxial cable & connectors problem" is sometimes another link in the chain wearing a disguise. Describe what your system is doing on 069 507 6822 (or WhatsApp a photo of the error screen) and we'll tell you which component it actually sounds like, free, before anything is booked.