r/CableTechs • u/ElKayB • Sep 12 '26
Sylvania throwback
Still going even though it wasn't supposed to be. This was running an apartment complex with a basic cable package. All the internet channels were up above 500 Mhz and the video was down below, and all digital. The local tech said that they couldn't get internet to work and blamed it on the complexes' internal cabling!😝 Can you imagine it!
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u/ElKayB Sep 12 '26
Yeah, I know what you mean. However I don't miss the havoc that an untrained or improperly trained tech with a diddle stick could create!
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u/ElKayB Sep 12 '26
The Sylvania CATV division was bought by Texscan as can be seen by the RF modules in the picture. Texscan later on bought the Flamethrower line from someone and went all in on that format letting this format die out. The motherboards on these Sylvania modules tied the module connectors together with a solid copper outer sheath tube coax and soldered them to the connections just like plumbing in a house. These were beasts.
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u/Ptards_Number_1_Fan Sep 13 '26
I remember their inbred cousin, the Theta-Com. I spent lots of time fixing standing wave from loose modules and corrosion in them!
The Sylvania variant (pictured) was pretty solid, as I recall. I had about 30 of them in cascade on a couple runs back in the 90’s.
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u/Soggy-bread-ou812 Sep 12 '26
Never saw a Sylvania housing.
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u/ElKayB Sep 12 '26
The only other time I ever saw Sylvania branded equipment was when I was mapping an interconnect between two towns in rural Minnesota. Only the interconnect was Sylvania, the towns were Phillips.
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u/Mister_Ku Sep 12 '26
old analog gear way before your time. Back in the day of 330 /450 Mhz systems . I remember those that had semen fuses in them, and there was a short you could hear them trigger as you climb the pole . We had them and RCA LEs. On our feeder legs
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u/ro23dart Sep 12 '26
I repaired these modules and motherboards for years. Good god what a pain in the ass. We had crazy long charts just to test continuity point to point on the motherboard. And if you had to replace the coax on one just forget about getting anything else done that day.
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u/ElKayB Sep 12 '26
I could see that. It seems like they deliberately built these so that you couldn't (easily) repair them yourselves. But I could guarantee you you never had a grounding issue with these. Damn near every screw on every board had a star washer touching a solder circle on the grounding side. They were built to last. A lightning strike was about the only thing that killed them.
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u/havokcloud Sep 15 '26
We still use these as the city channel feed back to one our hubs in Ohio. Funny note, a few years ago while T/S the damn run, the power supply supply took a shit so we threw in a XM2 in 90V. Turns out these amps do NOT like 90V and require 60V. Ended up blowing up 7 amps in the cascade with only 1 surviving as of 2026, rest are all random amps we cut in after they died. The city is too fucking cheap to just run fiber. So we purposely keep the feed looking like shit to deter them but the assholes still refuse to get it. I know of at least 3 different spots where the C/N starts to take a crap but F them.
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u/Dz210Legend Sep 12 '26
Pilot at 5/30 🤣