Old cable help please

[Checked62]

Hello I was hoping someone could help me. I'm a pensioner and the family have all moved out. I have sky plus in my living room, not sky Q. In one of the bedrooms of the house we used to have sky plus in there too, using multi room.  The multiroom has been cancelled for a few months now. I have two cables that come in from outside that used to connect to the back of the sky plus box and from the look of it go up to the dish. The nice sky man a while ago put a lot of extra cable with it as my grandkids liked the tv far away from where the cables came in the wall.

What I want to know is, is it safe to cut these cables myself or do I need a professional? I do not want the wires and they are a tripping hazard for me. Also would cutting it affect my sky in my living room in any way. The living room box has a different cable coming out of it and going to the dish but I assume the multiroom cables are still connected to the dish even though they are not connected to a box in the spare room. 

To summarise, does anyone know if it's SAFE to cut those cables without electric shock, and if I did would it affect my own sky in any way?  Many thanks for your help. I've tried asking sky and they don't understand. 

[Annie+UK · Accepted solution]

You should be OK if you make sure that the central thick wire does not have any of the thinner outer shielding wires touching it causing a short circuit and you tape off the ends of the wires or better still replace the plugs on the ends (the safer option)

Personnally though I'd get the wires unscrewed from the dishes LNB and have the wires totally removed, this would be the best way to deal with them

[Checked62]

Thank you for the fast reply. I was not aware there were thick and thin wires. I'm looking them now and they both look identical. 

[Annie+UK]

Each wire from the dish has an inner core, usually a thick copper wire surrounded with plastic to stop the shield wires touching it, and a ring of thin copper shielding wires just below the outer casing of the wire

[Checked62]

Oh very interesting thank you. Did not know that. So surely just cutting it with scissors or a strong knife will prevent them from touching ?

[nigea99]

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@Checked62 wrote:

Oh very interesting thank you. Did not know that. So surely just cutting it with scissors or a strong knife will prevent them from touching ?

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hi @Checked62 

You should be OK. 

Each connection should be isolated from the others even if they do touch (if they weren't isolated the voltage switching of polarity wouldn't work)

BTW as an aside -  the power carried by the cable is provided by the receiver so when dsiconnected from the reciever they carry no power & TBH even when connected they only carry around 18V and <500mA. - the risk is more about causing the receiver to to short out and stop providing power.

[Checked62]

That's all gobbledygook to me I'm afraid. I don't know much about it all. The fact that people are saying should a lot makes me concerned I may receive an electrical shock. 😆

[Mark39]

You won't receive an electric shock. The cables carry low voltage - around 35v, not mains voltage of 240v

[Checked62]

Thank you. That has at least stopped me worrying. 

[nigea99]

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@Checked62 wrote:

That's all gobbledygook to me I'm afraid. I don't know much about it all. The fact that people are saying should a lot makes me concerned I may receive an electrical shock. 😆

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Please see my edited post 

[Checked62]

Is the "receiver" the sky dish. I'm sorry if I'm not too clued up on all this. I've seemed outside help but 2 people let me down and one tried to charge £80

[nigea99]

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@Checked62 wrote:

Is the "receiver" the sky dish. I'm sorry if I'm not too clued up on all this. I've seemed outside help but 2 people let me down and one tried to charge £80

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Sorry @Checked62   for using  slightly more Techie terms - the receiver is the SKY Box in your room

Should you ever see the term LNB  this is  the electroic 'bit' on the dish (which stands for Low Noise Block) that the cables from your box connect to

[Checked62]

Ok thanks for all the replies. So it seems I should be fine to cut the wire myself and tape off the end. I'm dont care that the wire is still outside the building running up to the dish as I have other wires from the sky box I use doing the same it's just to remove the very very long wire in my room right near the door. It's also very messy.