RG6 Cable?

[lawtyger]

Hello!

This is my first day posting on this site after trying to get up to speed with all of the valuable infomation this site has. As I mentioned in another thread, I'm building a house which I expect to close on in January.

As of now, the plan is to get likely a Mits HDTV with an inegrated tuner and BHN. I've read a bunch of antenna recommendations which I will look into further as January approaches.

Fortunately, with our builder we are allowed to run our own additional wiring in terms of low level stuff like cable, phone, speaker, etc. My question is:

If we pre-wire for an attic antenna, should be simply use RG6 cable? I
saw things like Quad shielded, etc. and didn't know exactly what to use
to get the best results. I'd assume stuff like that may effect reception
and it may already be a task to get OTA signals since we will be living
in Pasco County at 54 and the Veteran's Expressway.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Chris

[Bschneider]

I personally use the quad sheilded RG6 cable throughout my home. I also run four RG6 cables to each outlet besides the standard BHN cable. That way if something new comes along that needs a cable I already have it there. But thats just me!

[passedpawn]

Home depot might have quad shield RG6. This is simply a coaxial cable that is shielded really well. You can easily get the cable, connectors, a connector crimper, and some cable staples and do it yourself. Home Depot also sells some really neat modular wallplates that can have several plug types. For example, in the same wall plate, you could have a couple of F-type coax connectors (antenna and cable?) and a couple of RCA speaker connectors (L/R surrounds). Check their electrical department.

[lawtyger]

Thanks Bschneider & Passedpawn for the info. . . Home Depot here I come!

Passedpawn you mentioned wall plates that may provide options for future devices. I'll definitely check that section out in Home Depot also.

The builder is about 1 week away from starting the framing so pretty soon we will be able to run whatever we want (low voltage stuff though, not actually electrical outlets). My Dad used to be a contractor and actually built his home from the ground up so he's very knowlegable about how/where to run things. What to run however, is another question. He's not up on the electronics of the future and I'm scrambling to catch up now.

Any suggestions on what we may want to pre-wire for now since we have the perfect opportunity to do so? So far, I think we've decided to:

- pre-wire for satelite
- pre-wire for an attic antenna
- pre-wire for speakers on the porch
- pre-wire for cable in the garage

Other than that, now really sure if there is anything else we should do. Building a house is an overwhelming experience :lol:

[passedpawn]

Thanks Bschneider & Passedpawn for the info. . . Home Depot here I come!

Passedpawn you mentioned wall plates that may provide options for future devices. I'll definitely check that section out in Home Depot also.

The builder is about 1 week away from starting the framing so pretty soon we will be able to run whatever we want (low voltage stuff though, not actually electrical outlets). My Dad used to be a contractor and actually built his home from the ground up so he's very knowlegable about how/where to run things. What to run however, is another question. He's not up on the electronics of the future and I'm scrambling to catch up now.

Any suggestions on what we may want to pre-wire for now since we have the perfect opportunity to do so? So far, I think we've decided to:

- pre-wire for satelite
- pre-wire for an attic antenna
- pre-wire for speakers on the porch
- pre-wire for cable in the garage

Other than that, now really sure if there is anything else we should do. Building a house is an overwhelming experience :lol:
I would run cable to my porch, too (if it is covered). Note that speakers outside do not have the same effect as indoor ones... without walls around, the sound is very thin and directional. For this reason, you might want to run an extra set or two of speaker wires for lawn speakers (the rock speakers).

[Floyd]

While there is no doubt that quad-shield cable is better, it is a pain to work with: requires adaptations for your stripping tool and requires hard-to-get fittings that most people don't have access to.
I don't know why you would have a need to double shield an antenna lead-in that would most likely just absorb a signal that is allready on it. Same reasoning applies to most of the other cables in the house, with the possible exception of someone living in the Riverview/ S.Brandon area who will be using cable. The reasoning here is that the cable company moves the local channels to another channel to avoid multipath ghosting caused by signal ingress on their quad-shield cable. The sorry fill-in channels that they put back on the abandoned channels are plagued with co-channel interferrence, and extra shielding will help to preserve their quality.
If you've ever tried to use standard F-56 fittings on RG-6 quad-shield cable, then you might agree with me.

[passedpawn]

While there is no doubt that quad-shield cable is better, it is a pain to work with: requires adaptations for your stripping tool and requires hard-to-get fittings that most people don't have access to.
I don't know why you would have a need to double shield an antenna lead-in that would most likely just absorb a signal that is allready on it. Same reasoning applies to most of the other cables in the house, with the possible exception of someone living in the Riverview/ S.Brandon area who will be using cable. The reasoning here is that the cable company moves the local channels to another channel to avoid multipath ghosting caused by signal ingress on their quad-shield cable. The sorry fill-in channels that they put back on the abandoned channels are plagued with co-channel interferrence, and extra shielding will help to preserve their quality.
If you've ever tried to use standard F-56 fittings on RG-6 quad-shield cable, then you might agree with me.
Truth: I have never used quad shield. I only recommended using it because I read that it is mandatory/code in Australia. I figured that what is good for them should be good for us.

I don't understand the absorb comment. If the shields on the cable are tied to the connector's shield, then the internal conductor should be protected from external noise.

BTW, My stripping tool is a box cutter.

[Bschneider]

I get my quad RG6 cable from Home Depot and then I get my connectors from the same company that Time Warner, er, Bright House gets them from. www.ppc-online.com I've never had a problem stripping the cable or attaching a connector to a quad cable. In fact I've had people tell me they can't tell the difference between my cables connections and BHN's cable connections.

check out www.ppc-online.com

[passedpawn]

I get my quad RG6 cable from Home Depot and then I get my connectors from the same company that Time Warner, er, Bright House gets them from. www.ppc-online.com I've never had a problem stripping the cable or attaching a connector to a quad cable. In fact I've had people tell me they can't tell the difference between my cables connections and BHN's cable connections.

check out www.ppc-online.com
Thanks, B. That was good info.

[OccamMD]

I believe Floyd's point on absorb is that you are using the shield to protect yourself from noise that is probably picked up by the antenna anyway. It's all in the air. Unless it is a real localized problem like a CRT or PC nearby.

[passedpawn]

I believe Floyd's point on absorb is that you are using the shield to protect yourself from noise that is probably picked up by the antenna anyway. It's all in the air. Unless it is a real localized problem like a CRT or PC nearby.
Well, he might be right. But the walls are chock full of all kinds of high-frequency carriers. Power lines are carrying all the conducted emissions from every electrical appliance in your house -- and they are not shielded. The attic is also quite close to the noisy fluorescent ballasts that most houses have on their ceilings. It would be a cool test to just use the shield as the conductor, and then see how the signal is affected by ambient electrical noise. Hmmm... I might try that this weekend. I'll post the results if I do.

[Floyd]

I guess my point is that using a quad shield cable for an attic antenna downlead is not going to change things much, since the added proctection of the increased shielding will be a tiny fraction of the signal picked up by the antenna itself. If you are running real long runs, or have a special noise situation, then I can see using the quad shield.
I do a lot o repairs in motels and businesses, and many times I'v had connector problems where a previous person tried to use a standard fitting on quad cable, and the fitting didn't slide on far enough to get a good crimp, or they did a weird strip job to try to get it to fit and lost some signal in the process.
If you use quad cable and have the right fittings.....great.

Hey, whatever happened to the football party idea, or another happy hour thing? I liked those Carrabas martinis.

[OccamMD]

Floyd,

I have RG6 because I have a 100 foot run outside. I need to crimp on a ew connector 'cause I left it out for a while. Do you have a digikey, grainger, CES, or radio shack part number for these?

[lawtyger]

I get my quad RG6 cable from Home Depot and then I get my connectors from the same company that Time Warner, er, Bright House gets them from. www.ppc-online.com I've never had a problem stripping the cable or attaching a connector to a quad cable. In fact I've had people tell me they can't tell the difference between my cables connections and BHN's cable connections.

check out www.ppc-online.com

Hi Bschneider,

I took a stroll to Home Depot and did find RG6 Quadshield cable. I looked at the site you provided (ppc-online.com) but didn't have any luck finding the correct connector for Quadshied. If the standard fitting for RG6 is a F-56 fitting, what is the term/number for the Quadshield fitting?

Thanks.

[passedpawn]

Digikey Quad-shield crimp connector:

http://www.digikey.com/scripts/us/dksus.dll?Detail?Ref=148045&Row=84963

Catelog page and datasheet viewable from there. I haven't bought connectors from Digikey, so good luck.

[passedpawn]

Hey, whatever happened to the football party idea, or another happy hour thing? I liked those Carrabas martinis.
Post same at the "Get Together" topic and see what happens. I would love to finally get to one of these!

[jaymer]

hi,
before the UPN station tour, the some tampa-sode folks are meeting at the same carrabbas AGAIN and then heading across the bridge to the tour. all are welcome to join us there, just leave a comment in the POLLS section that you might be coming for drinks early so we make enough room. will be leaving carrabbas around 6:30