Check your aerial cable for water

The other day my hard disk recorder (PVR) stopped working. Chaffing somewhat at the inconvenience I went through the usual litany of problem solving. Removing and replacing the power supply and then the ofter sockets. While refitting the aerial cable I noticed that it was wet. My first thought was that I might be about to dock one of the childrens' pocket money until they had paid for a new box, but it turned out that it wasn't their fault or a freak accident.

A friend better at heights than me discovered that the cover had come off the aerial on the roof converting the aerial cable into an extra gutter. Although there wasn't much water coming through, it had been enough to break something important in the PVR. So I needed a new aerial and new cabling. And a new PVR of course.

When my wife went to a local Home Entertainment store to buy more cable, they said that they have several such requests a week. Further research on the web suggests that cables can be worn if they move over roof tiles and eventually let in water.

Advice on preventing this problem seems to include using better quality cables and, if you can, getting the cable inside the house as soon as possible. Apparantly it should be possible to feed it through tiles and into the loft. This would also reduce the number of cables trailing over the house.

I'd also now recommend checking the back of your box from time to time. I should have noticed the corrosion on my adapter as you can see above. Perhaps if I had I wouldn't be trying to recover my daughter's favourite TV programs from a dead PVR.