Question with Coaxial Cable

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rjmattason

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Feb 20, 2006
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Brighton, IA
I went to menards this weekend and in the excitement of their 17% off sale, I purchased a roll of 500' Zenith Heavy Duty Quad Shielded RG6 Cable (ZDS5250 - pretty certain - similar to the 100' ZDS5214 just longer).

All sites are saying that is has been tested upto 2300Mhz. Is that okay for running between a HD satellite dish and its receiver? I was told to look for a 3Ghz cable but I guess I was blinded by the sale. Is there a reason why I was told to use 3Ghz? Does the 700Mhz difference make or break the system?

Also, the runs are 100', if that helps.

Anyone run runs that long? if so, what models of coaxial have you purchased and are you happy with the results?

THANKS,
RJ
 
D* says the cable has to have a solid copper center conductor with a rating of up to 3ghz for their AT9 dish... There's really no reason to use quad shield. Regular 60% braid RG-6 should be able to handle those 100' runs no problem.
 
rjmattason said:
I went to menards this weekend and in the excitement of their 17% off sale, I purchased a roll of 500' Zenith Heavy Duty Quad Shielded RG6 Cable (ZDS5250 - pretty certain - similar to the 100' ZDS5214 just longer).

All sites are saying that is has been tested upto 2300Mhz. Is that okay for running between a HD satellite dish and its receiver? I was told to look for a 3Ghz cable but I guess I was blinded by the sale. Is there a reason why I was told to use 3Ghz? Does the 700Mhz difference make or break the system?

Also, the runs are 100', if that helps.

Anyone run runs that long? if so, what models of coaxial have you purchased and are you happy with the results?

THANKS,
RJ

You're absolutely fine.

Check out my posts and everyone else's in this thread;

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=57103&highlight=coax

100 ft runs are actually considered SHORT, in the dbs industry.
 
Good luck getting fittings for quad shield, when I installed for time warner cable they guarded them with their lives. It is total over kill and im 99% sure the tech will not be able to work with that cable.
 
F connectors

Go to Lowes they have the Zenith F connectors ZDS5162 and crimping tool in the electrial dept.Make sure that you get the metal crimper(they also make one thats part plastic and it will break)buy the F-connectors and crimper as seperate peices it will cost a few bucks more that way but the kit is junk
 
I was planning on using my newly purchased compression crimper and rg6 and purchasing compression connectors once I was certain as to the cable. My Quad Shield cable looks like every other coaxial I have seen from the end view. I will take a closer look tonight.
 
Eric Goempel said:
Good luck getting fittings for quad shield, when I installed for time warner cable they guarded them with their lives. It is total over kill and im 99% sure the tech will not be able to work with that cable.

I'm a tech for the cable co here and I've ran in to a few houses with pre-wired quad and it is a pain in the arse. we only carry thomas & betts RG59 and RG6 snap-n-seal connectors which are not quad compatible. you can actually get the quad cable to work with the rg6 some times if you can fit the plastic seal around the cable itself, but usually it just doesn't work. you can go to lowes or home depot and get some pretty decent compression connectors and a cheap stripping tool and compression tool and do the connectors yourself to help out the local installer.

Thomas & Betts makes a universal connector now that works with RG59, RG59 Quad, RG6, and RG6 Quad. I wish they would carry those at our office.
 
I use a PPC EXXL-6 connector that works with all varieties of rg6 from regular dual, trishield to quad shield. Quad requires a special stripping procedure.

Stripping and installing connectors on Coax

Careful preparation of the cable end is very very important, especially with quad shielded cable. Sloppy preparation will result in failure to set the connector properly.


1. Strip off the outer jacket of the cable and a portion of the center conductor as instructed by the document provided with the stripper.

2. On quad shield coax, carefully fold back the outer shielding wires against the outer jacket of the cable evenly, exposing the inner shielding wires.

3. On both tri-shield and quad shielded coax, carefully cut away the outer foil shielding layer, and remove it to exposed the inner shielding wires. This will not need to be done on regular coax.

4. Carefully and evenly fold back the inner shielding wires evenly against the outer jacket.

6. Place the connector on the stripped coax, making sure that the center insulator enters the inner tube of the connector with "only" light pressure. If it requires heavy force initially, the insulator is not entering the tube correctly. The connector is fully inserted when the center connector is level with the end of the connector, when looking inside the nut.

7. Crimp the connector with the proper hex crimper or compress the connector on the cable with the proper compression tool.


Reasons why the shield wires must remain intact and must be folded over the outer jacket.

A straight cut of the outer jacket and the shield wire layer(s) down to the center conductor insulator will not allow full contact and retention of the outer shield. The shielded wires must be folded back over the jacket. Not doing so means that the connector is just slid over the shield wires and outer jacket and retention of the shield wires are held by friction, not by tightly held tension. Tightly clamping the ends of the shield wires prevents degrading the electrical contact of the shield wires, which serves as one leg of the voltage switching circuit for the multiswitch or lnb of 15-18 volts. If you are passing only a RF signal, it is not a problem, and might not be a problem for short coax runs. But on long runs, any minor bit of corrosion or separation of the barrel from the shield wires might lead to failure and a resultant voltage drop over time. This will manifest itself in the lost of the even transponders in the signal.

The industry standard is the 1/4"x1/4" strip on the coax. If the center insulator is below the center hole in the barrel, the coax has not been fully seated. Ideally, it should sit about 1/16" or 2mm out of the hole. If you a using a compression tool that applies pressure to the inside of the connector, the plunger will force the center conductor almost flush. Over time it might return to the 2mm protrusion. This protrusion is ideal in that it eliminates the "air" gap between the center conductor insulator and the female socket port. The "air" gap increases the chances of water vapor entry and corrosion. If you look at an F81 female port carefully, you will notice that it is recessed about 1/32" or 1mm.

So, folding back the shield wires enhances the electrical contact surface between the shield and the barrel of the connector. It also increases the connectors resistance to pull off. The bent over shield wires clamped by any type of connector prevents "pull off" and ensures the integrety of the connection for passage of both the RF signal, and more importantly, with dbs, the free conveyance of the lnb switching current.
 
Mike500,

Big fan of your posts, you have some of the best, most detailed posts I've seen, you should write up a FAQ.

I am not an installer, but I copy/paste every post of yours for future reference. (hope you don't mind)

Just thought I'd mention that so you know that people (me) appreciate the quality and time you invest in your posts.

No, I'm not a stalker.

Thanks.
 
I use Digiconn ends and they work with any type of RG6 cable. At one time I did use the PPC like mike and they work great also. cybertrip I thought all SNS connectors were quad compatible am I wrong?
 
The Tate said:
I use Digiconn ends and they work with any type of RG6 cable. At one time I did use the PPC like mike and they work great also. cybertrip I thought all SNS connectors were quad compatible am I wrong?

Nope, they sure aren't. The new connectors are color coded. Orange being RG59, Cyan being RG59 Quad, Blue being RG6, Purple being RG6 Quad, and Red being universal for all 6 Series cable.
 
cybertrip said:
Nope, they sure aren't. The new connectors are color coded. Orange being RG59, Cyan being RG59 Quad, Blue being RG6, Purple being RG6 Quad, and Red being universal for all 6 Series cable.

Good deal. I never used them so I did not know. thanks
 
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