voltage on cable tv line

Hey folks, here's one for ya.

I have digital cable at my house as well as internet access via cable modem. Recently my internet access went down (lost block sync). (But not my cable tv service) The tech guy from the cable company discovered that a splitter went bad and attributed it to an appreciable amount of voltage on the cable line (I could clearly feel it when he had me hold one line and touch another). I do have an amplifier installed on the cable line upstream from where the splitter is (the cable guys installed that for me a while ago) and wonder if this is the sourse of the voltage and if so how much it too much to blow out a splitter - which strangely didn't affect the cable tv signal.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Dave

 

Don't "feel" the current flow again. Be careful as it could possibly be enough to kill in the right conditions. Have someone check out the grounding and bonding of electrical, phone, TV and gas piping systems right away. These are all supposed to be at zero potential volts to each other.

 

You need to have someone check for a poor connection on your power service grounded conductor (neutral) between the utility transformer and your main service panel. In a code compliant installation, the shield of the TV cable will be in series with the grounded conductor. A small amount of the grounded conductor current will always flow on the cable shield. If there is a problem with the grounded conductor, a larger amount of current will flow. I know of one case where the grounded conductor was broken in a wind storm and the grounded conductor current in the TV cable heated the shield to the pint where the building caught fire.
Don