The Problem
Every foot of coax between your antenna and your tuner costs signal. For fringe stations, this loss is significant. The ideal setup puts the tuner as close to the antenna as possible — but the HDHomeRun needs 5V power, and running a separate power cable to the roof is awkward.
The solution: passive Power over Ethernet. Cheap PoE injector/splitter adapters carry 5V DC on spare pairs in a CAT5 cable alongside the ethernet signal. No active PoE switches, no extra power run.
Implementation & Results
Testing confirmed that cheap CAT5 reliably delivers 5V up to about 60 feet before voltage drop becomes a problem. CAT6 would extend that to 70–80 feet. In this installation, 60 feet reaches the basement hub.
The test antenna is a Delhi CYD-1430 aimed at Watertown. Reception is logged hourly. One finding: the HDHomeRun's tuner appears slightly less sensitive than a dedicated TV tuner on the same antenna — marginal stations that come in on a TV are sometimes inconsistent through the HDHomeRun.
