Is the Quality of your Coax Cable Important?

Is the Quality of your Coax Cable Important? - Apr 8, 2008  - Chris How can you get out of a Traffic Ticket?  - Apr 8, 2008  - Chris Do You Like Going to the Beach?  - Apr 8, 2008  - Chris Are Parrots Pets?

its not really to me…

bad list!

satilite tv and DSL FTW!

you dont need name brand cables.
You need to be running RG-6.

there is no HD coaxial cable. DirecTv,Comcast,and Dish use RG6-QS.
install an in-line amplifier or booster for better signal strength.

It was not mentioned in the list and I am not sure if it that big of issue for coax cable but I now that it is for speaker wires especially low voltage ones. That being the routing of cable parallel to electrical wires. The electromagnetic field produced by electricity as it flows through a conductor can interfere with the signal in the cable. It can be heard in speakers as a hiss or whine and I assumed that it can interfere with data over coaxial cables as well.

Coax cable is most commonly used for television sets, and internet connections it can transfer data usually in the case of televisions audio AND video, if you got for a high gain cable the hiss is greatly reduced due to the hight earthing of the cable. If the earthing of the cable touches the main signal cable (within the coax cable) then signal can also be greatly reduced.

Most consumer stores, like Radio Shack, will sell you RG-59 cable to be used for attaching TVs or cable modems. But that’s not what you want to use. You want RG-6, which is what the cable companies use.

Correct. There is not HD Coax, however, I ment that you can get cable that is OPTIMIZED for HD, which is as you stated RG6. Thanks for the comment!

Interesting. I know that occurance is possible with large set-ups, such as high rise buildings or other large complexs, and addition to the magnetic interference, it is possible to cause a fire.. I presume from heat build up. This post was intended for the home user, but thanks for the comment.

Yes, run RG6. All ment by sticking with a name brand is that more than likely a well known brand will be known for its quality. If you know that Philips makes a high quality cable, use it. I understand there are plenty of lesser known, yet still high quality brands out there. Thanks for the comment

i respect your comment, and I admit I am not an expert, this post was only from my personal experiences. Thanks/

Are you kidding with the Monster cable? Biggest rip off ever! Maybe you should buy a name brand, but don’t spend all the extra cash in return for nothing that is Monster.

One thing to note is that many houses (to save money) run a sort of daisy chain cable where it is one big loop with many splitters and plugs. If you want to ensure a strong feed, you’ll need ‘home runs’ which are direct lines from the entrance point into your house to the room where you want cable. This can reduce line noise and improve the signal.

While you are at it, you can consider running a conduit (plastic tube) so you can then thread wires in as needed (fiber, ethernet, whatever comes next)

I read an article that stated cheap$20 hd cables were just as good as Monster cables and that monster cable were just ripping consumers off.

I just have to get a chuckle out of this. You wrote 5 paragraphs to describe a problem/solution that could have been addressed in a few sentences.

Sorry to poke a little fun, but it would seem that your specialty is more along the lines of software, something I’m a major moron at myself. But I have practically lived and breathed “coax” for well over 25 years and I think I can add a little clarification on that subject.

Simply put, your cable probably had a broken and/or damaged center conductor. It was just old. Even the cheapest length of RG-59 coax will do a superb job, given the short length you were using. I always use RG-6, cut to length, and attach my own ends. RG-6 is heavier and better shielded than RG-59 and the price difference is negligible (about 35 cents/foot vs 25 cents)

Just don’t waste your money on those “monster” cables and the like, especially when it comes to coax, which is plentiful and cheap!

Yes, quality of cable is important. Get your cable company to increase the length or buy similar cable.

also if you have multiple splits, there is signal strength loss each time you do it. A cable company serviceman told me try for no more than 4 devices on one cable.

Have any doubt of signal strength? get your cable service guy to check it.

They CAN boost signals but this is usually done in remote areas and is always hard to get them to put it in.

that is why they use RG6-Quad Shield, to minimize electrical interference.

It’s just like my laptop’s AC Adapter. It’s old and failing on me, even if it came from the manufacturer. Always change the cables every 2-3 years! It’ll save your behind in the long run!

I just watched this video and had to comment. I used to do customer service for one of the major broadband providers and gleaned at least a little experience from that. This was a few years ago and some things may have changed, but I’m sure these basics still apply. Here’s what I know about coax cable.

1. Ideally you want to have the cable come into the house and split once at the entry point. One feed goes directly to your modem – straight shot, no splitters, no “barrel” connectors/extenders, good quality cable, no kinks. The other feed can then split to feed all of the tv’s in the house. TV’s aren’t as picky about signal strength.

2. You also want to make all your splits at the entry point. You shouldn’t have it go the the living and then have a splitter there that goes up to the bedroom, then splits from there and feed the other bedroom etc. Unfortunately many homes are already wired this way as they were wired as the need arose. But if it is new construction or if you’re doing it yourself make sure it’s done this way. Makes it much easier to troubleshoot and things will just work better.

3. If you need an amplifier you want it AFTER this initial split on the TV leg. Most amplifiers are only unidirectional (this may have changed in the past few years) and they will mess up or totally block the outgoing connection on your modem. Also, an amplified signal may be too “hot” for your modem and fry it.

4. Some low quality splitters filter out signals below 900MHz. Make sure yours doesn’t. This is where your Internet is transmitted. Filter that and you are off the ‘net.

5. Some splitters – usually ones that are more than one-to-two – have one leg that has less attenuation than the others legs – 3dB vs 7dB. Use the one with the lower attenuation to feed your modem.

6. If you make your own coax cable, make sure when you attach the ends that the hot wire sticking out isn’t too long or it could kink inside the connection and short it out by hitting the ground, or even damage the equipment.

7. And you want RG59 cable. If you can easily coil it around your arm in a circle smaller than a couple feet, it’s too flimsy and doesn’t have proper grounding. Those old cables you’ve got lying around with the frayed ground wire sticking out and all the kinks and no threading on the connector – throw ‘em out!

8. Throw ‘em out because they’ll degrade the quality of your signal. They may leak and interfere with other equipment. The cable company does periodic drives around their service areas with detection equipment checking for leaks. They will leave a notice at your house if they detect leakage. If you do not respond and let them check the wiring inside your home they will disconnect you. One of the reasons for this is that aircraft use some of the same frequencies and if there is leakage it could interfere with their equipment. Not sure if I totally buy that, but that’s what we were told. But I know I wouldn’t want a plane crashing into my house just because I was too cheap to throw away that 99 cent RatShack cable!

I hope that helps.
~Matt

P.S. I could be wrong, but if I remember correctly RG59 was used indoors. I think the drop from the pole to your house is RG6. That’s not usually used indoors.

tieing up cables is sound advice! Especially when there’s little fuzzies running around…

Ok first off like everyone said. you want RG6 cable.. when you were referring to HD coax cable. there isn’t a true HD coax cable. your were probly just meaning to say the RG6.
and please do everyone a favor and don’t waste your money on monster cables. or radio shack cables. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY A NAME BRAND COAX CABLE. All you need is a RG6 that is quad shield. it doesn’t have to be triple plated gold connectors. it just needs to be shield properly. so you don’t have ingress.
Also like everyone said. its not good to split it more then it already is. not only are you loosing signal. but your also raising the return signal. and also raising the signal to noise ratio.
And the whole thing with boosting the signal. Chris was talking about how some of his previous homes had a house amplifier on it. well you deff don’t want to put a amplifier on your modem line. it will mess with the return signal and cause problems down the road. also if you have a crappy signal coming to your home..
like a bad drop or a unbalanced amplifier in the neighborhood and your taken that crappy signal and amplifying it. ITS STILL GOING TO BE CRAP.
Also like Chris said. PLEASE never use those snap on jumper cables that come with your VCR.. those have the worst insulation on them. I dont even think there is insulation on them.. they are so thin and cheap. also they come unplugged so easy cause they just snap on the f-81 barrel. and next thing you know. you move you modem or even bump it with your foot and your internet is working. and its cause the cheap snap on connector came unplugged from the wall.
plus like i said they will have bad ingress on them.
so I just wanted to post my 2 cents on the whole coax cable issue.

Just remember stick with the RG6 cable with good shielding and good connectors on the ends.
“don’t use those cheap screw on connectors you buy from radio shack” they will pop right off. get some good compression fittings

and one last thing
Chris mentioned that your modem might have a self diagnostics test built into it.
if you want to access it. just type this into your web browser
192.168.100.1
that should work if you have a motorola modem or scientific Atlantic Webstar modem. and maybe some others. if it doesn’t work. just do a search for your brand. most of them have it built in.

RG-6 or RG-59 are only reasonable at best, you want CT-100 as used in satellite comms. Better quality construction and higher -3db frequency.

You might think the extra bandwidth isn’t worth the extra $10 per reel or so, but remember with fast broadband, the signals have harmonics in them. The lower the grade of cable, the more that digital signal comes out looking like a pure sinewave and stripped of all data. Better cable will give less dropped data.

Incidentally, rewiring as much as you can to cut out every possible joint or connection might bring a speed boost, since most people never bother checking the specs of connectors/cable. EVERY SINGLE CONNECTION attentuates your signal by 1.5 to 3dB. So one single joint to lengthen a cable can in theory attenuate a signal by up to 9dB (-3dB at the cable-to-connector junction, another -3dB in the coneector-to-connector adaptor, the final -3dB is lost in the connector-to-wire junction).

Do you know that every sharp bend in the cable can drop another -1dB? The reason is that a sharp bend “crushes” the cable internally, so the shield layer gets closer to the central core and this increases the capacitance. Since you are working at high frequencies, this increases impedance (by how much, depends on the frequency you are working at, but remember the harmonics go MUCH higher than your base rate). This is another reason for choosing CT-100, since the insulator between the central core and the shield is foam, not the simple (and easily-crushed) air-celled polyethelene/polypropylene construction of the RG series cables.

Finally the outer shielding is MUCH more effective at shielding the signal-carrying core from RFI/EMI interferance, since it isn’t just the open-weave strands of the RG series cables, but open-weave strands over copper foil. For sat-comms you usually use crim-on F-Connectors, but it fits into the normal plugs and sockets used for RG series cables usually, as it’s almost the identical dimensions of RG series cables.

I’ve come across a lot of eye-opening specification sheets and mis-information in my 25 years on L, S, C, Ku & Ka-Band frequencies.

The video is very nice and you can get all the details of the coax cable on the quality in this video. thanks for the post. This is very useful for all the people and i had a doubt on the quality on the coax cables and now its cleared. Good and thanks for the information!!!

Philips cables are not high quality. I have been fighting with two strands of RG6 Quad Shield that have been leaking like a siv. Going to find something better. What a waste of money. I guess that is why Walmart carries them.