After talking to the installer about my upcoming installation I have replaced all the RG59 cable in my house with RG6. His vision of how he would install it and what I wanted were not even close, so I did it myself. Anyhow he indicated that he could not guarantee the install unless all the cable met the 3GHz requirement. OK, I installed (more expensive) cable branded with 'Swept to 3GHz' every 2 feet on it. If the signals coming off the dish are in the 2.1GHz range what's with the 3GHz requirement? Just curious. TIA for any answers provided.
Why Is 3GHz RG6 Important?
- Thread starter BobHelms
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RG59 is not going to work, don't even try, its best that you replaced it with some form of RG6!
As far as the cable having to be swept to 3GHZ, its more of a spec requirement if anything else!
Technically you can install any RG6 cable and it should work fine, if it was swept to 1GHZ, but would probably still sweep to 3 GHZ
Its almost like CAT5, CAT5e and CAT6. If you want a Gigabyte network, technically the spec book calls for CAT6, however you can get away with cat5e in many cases.
Simply put, it's the safer option. Not only does a higher quality cable ensure that your house is ready for future technologies, It will also prevent signal fade in the higher frequency ranges. A cable that is "Rated" to 2.1GHz is rated to only lose a certain dB of signal every so many feet @ 2.1 GHz. Because of the nature of cables, and signal propagation, that will be significantly more loss than at the lower end of the used frequency band (in the case of most sat systems 900MHz). Sweep tested or not all cables will suffer from a frequency response curve that favors the lower frequencies. A cable sweep tested to 3.0 GHz will still have an uneven frequency response, however it should have much better response on the higher frequencies used by current DBS technologies (Dish Pro, Dish Pro Plus, SWM). This can (but does not always) result in better signal propegation across the board, and result in few signal losses due to atmospheric interference (rain/snow fade) or any other situation that might otherwise interfere with your signal. Was it absolutely necessary to get 3.0GHz cable, no. Was it a good idea, In my opinion, yes.
Agreeing with what has already been said here. The cable is a transport agent. 
You choose it based on its use and the job conditions. I just ran through a spool of about 500 feet of RG6-Quadshield. Lots of people will say quadshield is overkill and/or just a geeky bragging rights kind of thing. But I chose it because I have to run the cable in close proximity to power wiring.
The RG59 just would have sucked at some point. The RG6 is what you needed. Give yourself teh best shot at the best signal so that all of the little things that might degrade that signal have a diminished effect.
My older brother is an electronics wizard. I don't know his degrees, but ....
He was showing me a while back when I asked the same question about 3GHz, that many brands of cable not specifically advertised as having passed a 3GHz sweep.... pass it anyways. It's just not officially CERTIFIED as having passed that test. If it doesn't say it's passed the 3GHz sweep, it may very well pass it if you test it, but variations in manufacture would leave the question of, "will every bit of cable on this entire spool pass 3GHz?". That's not guaranteed.
You choose it based on its use and the job conditions. I just ran through a spool of about 500 feet of RG6-Quadshield. Lots of people will say quadshield is overkill and/or just a geeky bragging rights kind of thing. But I chose it because I have to run the cable in close proximity to power wiring. The RG59 just would have sucked at some point. The RG6 is what you needed. Give yourself teh best shot at the best signal so that all of the little things that might degrade that signal have a diminished effect.
My older brother is an electronics wizard. I don't know his degrees, but ....
He was showing me a while back when I asked the same question about 3GHz, that many brands of cable not specifically advertised as having passed a 3GHz sweep.... pass it anyways. It's just not officially CERTIFIED as having passed that test. If it doesn't say it's passed the 3GHz sweep, it may very well pass it if you test it, but variations in manufacture would leave the question of, "will every bit of cable on this entire spool pass 3GHz?". That's not guaranteed.
What they said.
In my experience, you can't have cable quality that is too high. Who knows what device/antenna you may want to replace in the future, and would you want to go back into the walls and through crawl spaces to do it? The cost/foot differential is not that much!
I had an experience last month that illustrated it to me: Friend was getting a Comcast HDTV install. Existing RG-6 gave perfect cable picture, but the installer couldn't get PPV to work. Under the house I went, replaced the original RG-6 with quad shield and voila, PPV worked fine.
I have yet to encounter a situation where Cat5 wouldn't support gigabyte speeds, but I only put cat6 in my walls.
As for the cable being tested/certified, in a Seattle office building, at 19 stories up from the demarc I had the phone company put in shielded twisted pair for a WAN connection. It tested fine for the data wires, but wouldn't work reliably. We replaced the cable, and upon testing it, we found 3' sections every 20 feet or so missing the shield. We wished someone had tested that cable before putting it in a 1000' box for sale.
In my experience, you can't have cable quality that is too high. Who knows what device/antenna you may want to replace in the future, and would you want to go back into the walls and through crawl spaces to do it? The cost/foot differential is not that much!
I had an experience last month that illustrated it to me: Friend was getting a Comcast HDTV install. Existing RG-6 gave perfect cable picture, but the installer couldn't get PPV to work. Under the house I went, replaced the original RG-6 with quad shield and voila, PPV worked fine.
I have yet to encounter a situation where Cat5 wouldn't support gigabyte speeds, but I only put cat6 in my walls.
As for the cable being tested/certified, in a Seattle office building, at 19 stories up from the demarc I had the phone company put in shielded twisted pair for a WAN connection. It tested fine for the data wires, but wouldn't work reliably. We replaced the cable, and upon testing it, we found 3' sections every 20 feet or so missing the shield. We wished someone had tested that cable before putting it in a 1000' box for sale.
What does "swept to 3GHz" mean? It could mean that they put it on a network analyzer and did a swept measurement for amplitude (and possibly phase) response. It makes no statement about what those results were, whether it passed RG-6 specs.
It could also mean that they connected the cable to a signal generator and swept it to 3 GHz with no measurement at all.
I suppose it could also mean that they dropped it onto the floor and used a broom to sweep it into a dustpan labelled "3 GHz"
I learned to be skeptical a long time ago as a kid when they used to sell 11 transistor radios where 5 of the transistors were just glued into the box and two more were used as diodes.
If installing "3 GHz swept" cable raise your cost or/and increase time of installation - skip it;
just use 2Ghz or 2.2 GHZ or 2.5 GHz - you will see no difference at all. And your equipment too.
just use 2Ghz or 2.2 GHZ or 2.5 GHz - you will see no difference at all. And your equipment too.
From experience upgrading my house and pulling coax to all the rooms, if you get solid copper cable "swept tested" at least 2.3 GHz you will be set for anything they will throw at you in the future. This cable will even pass Sirius and XM satellite radio which is nearly 2.35 GHz (which is what I have running about 50 feet to my XM receiver).
If you get copper-clad steel the signal can be slightly lower and I have had trouble with longer lengths. This trouble went away when I replaced the cable with pure solid copper cable.
Not only that, but my copper-clad steel has rusted on the tip of the stinger (which is super annoying in a humid environment). My DISH Network tech used copper-clad steel and all the "stingers" outside are rusted on the very tips.
If you get copper-clad steel the signal can be slightly lower and I have had trouble with longer lengths. This trouble went away when I replaced the cable with pure solid copper cable.
Not only that, but my copper-clad steel has rusted on the tip of the stinger (which is super annoying in a humid environment). My DISH Network tech used copper-clad steel and all the "stingers" outside are rusted on the very tips.
Where I was at, dish quit buying copper about 2 years ago and went with copper clad except for wildblue installs which requires copper.
Specs call for swept tested cable minimum of 2150 mhz.
Think of 3 ghz cable as peace of mind and chunk of your wallet.
Specs call for swept tested cable minimum of 2150 mhz.
Think of 3 ghz cable as peace of mind and chunk of your wallet.
This has nothing to do with the construction of the core. If the stinger rusts, it means either cheap fittings were used, or they were not tightened down to form the water proof seal. I have seen Dish Network installs from 5+ years ago where they used PPC compression fittings and wrench tightened them where the stingers looked brand new when I unscrewed the fitting.
And to answer the OPs question... it doesn't have to be 3ghz.... 2150mhz is fine.... some instalers interpreted DNS rules as being "3ghz only" when in reality any 2150+ rated RG6 is approved.
One level too high there. The spec calls for Cat5e, but you can usually get away with normal Cat5. Cat6 isn't required until you start talking 10Gig, which supports up to 180 feet on Cat6 and the full standard 330 feet on Cat6a.
Cat7 was required to run 10Gig over the full 330 feet until Cat6a's release, now Cat7 has been tested to support the in-development 100Gig standard up to 230 feet and there is work ongoing to provide full 330 foot support (possibly with a "Cat7a" enhancement).
Last time I checked, E* listed the mfg name, and cable part # on their "approved equip" list. If a installation is found to have a problem attributed to hardware not included on that list, the dealer or contractor could be subject to an installation charge-back. The installer should be up on that requirement and supply you the recommended cable options that are "approved".
It gives E* a way to weed out installers that have abnornal number of service complaints. If you don't use the approved listed hardware and the customer experiences repeated service problems, E* has made it clear that cost reversals will be the first option, then removal of authorization my follow. The moral of the story, follow the list.....
What I could say - those problems was introduced by ppl, by their work. The cable is out of the complains by law of physics.
I understand your point. If this problem is traced to accessories not on the list, physics or not, the customer has the right to have his installation according to specs. In this case, if that customer finds that the cable is to blame, they deserve to have the approved accessories.
Customer, installer, QA man or a boss cannot change a law of physics !
They can blame each other, not a cable.
If you still miss my point, then you should turn your attention to the connectors and quality of hand work of the person who did installation;
again there is no one reason to blame cable's parameters if it real RG-6 not fake.
They can blame each other, not a cable.
If you still miss my point, then you should turn your attention to the connectors and quality of hand work of the person who did installation;
again there is no one reason to blame cable's parameters if it real RG-6 not fake.
You know, I took another look at my new compression fittings, and you're right, the copper-clad steel cable is not rusted on the tips. I changed out all of my hobbyist crimp-on connectors with compression fittings about a year ago and you're right, they're not rusted at all.
