What happens if my coaxial cable is kinked or damaged?
Most people know that coaxial cable connections and kinks cause "signal loss". Actually, it's worse than "losing signal". The usual effect of a kinked cable or poorly made connection is to reflect part of the signal. In effect you can think of it as "standing waves" where certain frequencies get cancelled out. This can result in weird effects such as one specific bouquet frequency being wiped out or degraded.
So you won't see this as "less signal" on the average meter, but a spectrum analyser will show a dip at one or more points in the frequency spectrum. See comparison frequency spectra below.
This is how it should look. Each of those "hills" represents a digital multiplex or "bouquet" which contains several channels. Below is a representation of what can happen if the cable is kinked or contains a poorly made connection. One channel group multiplex is no longer receivable.
Please note, however, that a similar symptom can occur if there is:
