Ok...

I may stand to be corrected and re-educated here, but let me say that I may need it...

I have recently come across a technician who maintains that only the longest of satellite runs need to be RG-6 COAX...all others could pass along just merrily as a pgi in slop on RG-59...and that the RG-6 thing is also bunk...

Now throughout my years of training, OTJ, Peer, and books...and sitting through countless stacks of paper bullsh*t from the major DSS players (Dish and Direct), I was ALWAYS led to believe that RG-59 simply would not work for ANY satellite installation...with the POSSIBLE exception a two or three foot patch cable here and there...

But now this guy...with another attmept to debunk what I think I know...I was CLEARLY wrong about cables and wire...so am I wrong about this...

In essence, it has now been physically proven that wire is wire..so to at least some extent...any good coax should theoretically work...right?

Or is there a whole different physics lesson coming here?

At least it's some stimulating new conversation, from a new angle with this guy! EVERY FRIGGIN DAY!!! But I love it, as I end up better for it most of the time!

avdude
www.integrationpros.com

I've run Satellite in several homes that were orginally run with RG-59. We pull the Cheap HexCrimp F Connectors off and replace them with Augats, but thats about it in most situations...... I've probobly got 20-30 boxes in the field running just fine on RG-59... ANd less tha a handfull of instances where I had to rerun RG-6

Don't know about physics but I know that I have personally replaced RG59 cable with RG6 to get a satellite signal. Could be the fact that the cable was installed in the wall... most likely by a sparky with dielectric crushing romex staples. One should also note that the old dual LNB dishes had 4 2.5ft RG59 leads coming from the LNBs to the dish mounted multiswitch. Replacing these with RG6 leads never got me a measureably different signal. When using existing cable in a house... I'll always try to use whats there by installing an Augat end (this DOES make a difference... definitely verifiable by the receivers signal strength meter). Many times I've had success and tuned a good enough signal with an RG59 so I've left it alone. I don't have time to convince my customer that I should run a new RG6 for the few dollars in labor it gains me... If it works it works.

One other note... had a customer hook up his own satellite receiver to a spec home installed sat outlet using Monster Mini... it worked fine... fine enought to leave alone because the guy had spent half an afternoon tucking and fishing this line over to his stuff and an RG6 would have been visible.

For new runs and prewires I run nothing but RG6 Quadshield with solid copper center conductors. Why?... because it only costs me a few cents more per foot... the rolls come swept to 3 GHz... and with the new Pro-Fit system I can use this stuff for any video cable and dress my rack really neatly because the cables are made to length. I've never had a problem using three four foot runs of RG6 Quad Copper for a component video signal and have never seen a visual difference between that and $150.00 retail set of component video cables. Hey... you can get it in just about any color in the rainbow.

It'll be interesting to hear what the engineers say about this. I don't claim to be one and find that I usually go with the flow. Any of us who've been in retail have been through countless hours of having the Monster story bashed down our throats until we become believers. Once I migrated to custom I stopped feeling the need to cable my customers to death. I believe in getting rid of the crap molded things that come with equipment because they pick up noise and some times they dont even have continuity. A basic rule of about $50.00 for a set of Audio cables and $30.00 to $60.00 for a video cable adds a nice little pad to my bottom line and a reasonable benefit to my customer withou gouging him/her.

Been here, done this.

I can attest that larger cable will improve signal. Had a sat dish 300' from it's receiver that was on RG6 with an amp, signal only in the 50's - 60's. Replaced with RG11 no amp and signal in the 80's.

While RG59 may work for some jobs, you should be able to prove it to yourself by hooking up a test system with 100' cables of each and check the levels.

If you meter out the db levels and you know the levels that need to be present you can calculate what wire you will need. DTV IRD's need from -35 to -60db to work. This is a separate issue from signal level (pointing) but related. If your run is over 250' use RG11 iff your run is really short there is no doubt RG59 will work. But in the case of wiring a new home one should leave RG59 in the past and just not pull it anymore. RG6 quad is best. RG11 for long runs. At 1450mhz db drop is much greater over distance. So my advice is learn about freq. drop per 100' and what you need to make these systems work. Take a look at the sat install guide put out by Channel Vision and is on there web site. It is very well done and very helpful.

59 will work. There have been plenty of occasions where we have been in an older home that was wired with 59 and have installed systems no problem. Usually, because the customer doesn't want to pay for additional labor. Just like Rob said you'll get some signal loss if you've got long runs, but if it is a standard home, pull off the twist on ends replace them with a decent F-conector and your good to go.

Check out Belden's specs for some of their RG59 (i.e. 1505A). They state it's been sweep tested to 3 Ghz.

Physics aside, I think your installer friend has been lucky on most of his installations and probably never installed any thing in a high noise enviroment.

Distance is the biggest issue. Voltage drop and freq. fall-off.