Best RG6?

[Greg Mueller]

When I initially installed my antenna pole I planned on having a BUD, so I layed in a combination wire, which had two runs of RG6 and some stranded multi conductor wire. Now I have a Dish Network setup with a Dish 1000 and VIP211. I am thinking that maybe that original wire might not be the optimum for the Dish Network set up so I might want to replace the old wire with some new RG6. The run is less than 100'.

What would the best RG6 be for running from the dish to the house?
(it's buried)

 

[bhelms]

Greg - Was that original cable rated for burial? Is it working now? If so, I'd leave well enough alone!

Just my 2-cents worth, others may disagree.

 

[Greg Mueller]

Yes it was rated for burial and is still working. But how well? Maybe I'm not getting all the signal I could ?????

 

[webbydude]

I'm sure other techs will chime in with their thoughts...this is mine. Just like Bhelmes stated, if it ain't broke...don't fix it. If there is a problem with the coax, you would have intermittant channel loss and/or overall no-signal. Bottom line, it's a crap-shoot. Most often you'll "win". Every now and then it'll bite you in the butt.

 

[Crunch]

RG6 Cable

The guys are right in saying it wouldn't be worth changing out cables for what you might gain in signal strength. You are only running 100' so even if you have several dB of loss it more than likely will not be noticeable.

But if you have a burning hair, then change to a cable that is swept tested to 3000MHz -- I believe I bought a Belden cable [Belden 7915A RG6 Duobond Plus® Shield Cable Bulk 500 Ft Sweep tested 5 - 3000MHz
http://www.broadbandutopia.com/coaxial.html

BTW - the cable I bought is not for burial but you'd just have to spend a littel more to get the 3000MHz and the burial rating.

 

[bhelms]

Building on that...If you do upgrade you could always put it into conduit, which has the advantage of allowing you to pull more cables when needed (assuming you oversize the conduit to begin with, like 1" to 1.5"). If you were to run new cables, add one or two now anyway for expansion.

The several dB loss you might have with your current cables vs 3GHz-rated coax shouldn't have much affect on a digital signal. The symptoms might include what webbydude mentioned, and perhaps overall lower signal strength as indicated in the Point Dish screen meter readings, but as compared to what? Do you have a neighbor receiving the same E* sats? Maybe you can compare signal strengths that way. If yours are considerably lower and you do suffer occasional drop-outs that your neighbor doesn't see, then that might prompt an upgrade. Otherwise - sometimes more is less...!

 

[FantasyChannel]

Greg,

What is your signal strength?

Assuming that your dish is aimed correctly, if you are hitting 90s for 119 and 110 with all signal strength from the various transponders relatively close to each other (no more than 10 points) then everything is hunky dory. Don't mess with it.

Don't be alarmed with 129's signal. It is low and will stay that way until DISH can give it a boost.

 

[RandallA]

"It is low and will stay that way until DISH can give it a boost."

I'd say more likely until Dish replaces Echostar V. That satellite is old and low powered.

 

[Greg Mueller]

Thanks for the replies guys.
110 & 119 are fine, but I didn't know if I am losing signal or not. It's been about 8 years since I put in that cable and I'm sure a lot has changed. All the talks of "3ghz rated" (etc etc) got me to wondering if the new dish setup required more of it's RG6 than the old C-band stuff.

In a couple of years we'll be retiring to New Mexico and when that happens I'll put in some "state of the art" RG6 and have a dish and observatory farm

We've come a long way since the days of scrounging old telco stuff and trying to get a picture

 

[Fredinva]

My old C-band RG6 cable works fine for my Dishnet, it was installed in 1986!!!!!!!

fred