Ed Nielsen wrote:
At a trade show several years ago, a vendor demonstrated the effects
stapling cables could have on signal transmission. He took a VCR, a ch.
3 modulator and a piece of drop cable and attached the cable to a piece
of wood utilizing a regular staple gun that you buy at any home
improvement store. Used the gun as most people would, and inspection of
the cable showed it to be fine (undamaged). By the seventeenth staple,
ch. 3 was completely gone..

It doesn't take major crushing to create mismatch, and as to whether it
is significant sort of depends on what happens to be trying to get
through at the particular point where the mismatch occurs.

A periodically repeating mismatch, such as the one produced by the
staple demonstration, can cause extreme effects as the demonstration
showed. This is a very much worse case than a single mismatch.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

In message , Roy Lewallen
writes
Ed Nielsen wrote:
At a trade show several years ago, a vendor demonstrated the effects
stapling cables could have on signal transmission. He took a VCR, a
ch. 3 modulator and a piece of drop cable and attached the cable to a
piece of wood utilizing a regular staple gun that you buy at any home
improvement store. Used the gun as most people would, and inspection
of the cable showed it to be fine (undamaged). By the seventeenth
staple, ch. 3 was completely gone..
It doesn't take major crushing to create mismatch, and as to whether
it is significant sort of depends on what happens to be trying to get
through at the particular point where the mismatch occurs.

A periodically repeating mismatch, such as the one produced by the
staple demonstration, can cause extreme effects as the demonstration
showed. This is a very much worse case than a single mismatch.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Stapling - or any other small mismatch repeated at regular intervals -
can indeed produce a severe structural mismatch (with the associated
suckout) at frequencies where the intervals are one wavelength, and
multiples thereof. However, the presence of a one-off connector where
the match is distinctly questionable will usually go completely
un-noticed (except to the most discerning of engineers). I still
maintain that any problem will be because there is no proper continuity
through the connector, or possibly an inner-to-outer short (maybe
partial). I must admit, I haven't used an RF TDR in earnest for over 20
years. I have found that, if it buzzes out OK at DC, it will generally
be OK at RF.
Ian.
--

"Ed Nielsen" writes:

It doesn't take major crushing to create mismatch, and as to whether it is
significant sort of depends on what happens to be trying to get through at
the particular point where the mismatch occurs.

At http://www.cencom94.com/gpage.html9.html, there is a picture of a sweep
trace of some cable with hex-crimp connectors (gotta scroll down a little).

That particular sweep seems to be from a highrise building which had hex
crimp connectors every 25 feet all the way up the building. A single
hex crimp, or a bunch of hex crimps spaced irregularly, would have far
less effect. So whether this matters partly depends on whether you're
wiring an apartment building or just a house.

Dave

With all due respect, that's a rather frightening position to maintain.
I've had to replace both .750 and .500 because of dings. Complaints were
that certain channels were out. A couple of years ago I had to replace a 4
foot piece of RG 6 inside a wall (splitter to outlet) that had the
attenuation of a 100 foot cable. 950MHz to 1450MHz worked (though not near
as well as it should have), but the rest of the bandwidth up to 2200MHz
didn't work at all. Electricians had greatly exceeded the minimum bend
radius when they made up the outlet.

DC does not necessarily mean that RF will work, nor does RF necessarily mean
that DC will work.

--

CIAO!

Ed N.


"Ian Jackson" wrote in message
...
years. I have found that, if it buzzes out OK at DC, it will generally be
OK at RF.
Ian.
--

In message , Ed Nielsen
writes

"Ian Jackson" wrote in
message ...
years. I have found that, if it buzzes out OK at DC, it will
generally be
OK at RF.
Ian.

With all due respect, that's a rather frightening position to maintain.
I've had to replace both .750 and .500 because of dings. Complaints
were that certain channels were out. A couple of years ago I had to
replace a 4 foot piece of RG 6 inside a wall (splitter to outlet) that
had the attenuation of a 100 foot cable. 950MHz to 1450MHz worked
(though not near as well as it should have), but the rest of the
bandwidth up to 2200MHz didn't work at all. Electricians had greatly
exceeded the minimum bend radius when they made up the outlet.

DC does not necessarily mean that RF will work, nor does RF necessarily
mean that DC will work.


Ed, I'm sure what you say is true. However, one-off moderate mismatches
(or even repeated moderate mismatches which are buffered by
attenuation), such as might be caused by the use of poor quality
connectors, should not cause a failure of service unless the service
would have been marginal if the connectors were good.

As for bends in cable, if you can, tie a loose knot in a piece of coax,
run a wideband sweep through it, and observe the output. Now pull the
knot tight. Let me know when the output starts to be affected.

Let me say again, I'm not advocating sloppy practices and poor
workmanship. Manufacturers' specs and industry standards should always
be adhered to. This avoids endless truck-rolls (God - I hate that
Americanism!) to the 1% of customers where some bright spark has cut one
corner too many. But, especially in the amateur world, we should maybe
not worry too much about using things which industry has rejected, often
for reasons which have absolutely no impact on what we are trying to do.
So I'm NOT throwing out my stash of crimp and screw-on F-connectors!

Ian.
--

Let's just agree to disagree. We both hold positions based, at least in
part, on many years of experiences.

I did not say that hex-crimp fittings WILL cause issues, I said they COULD
cause issues.

As for the knot/sweep thing; no need. I have already seen the results.

--

CIAO!

Ed N.


"Ian Jackson" wrote in message
...
In message , Ed Nielsen
writes

"Ian Jackson" wrote in message
...
years. I have found that, if it buzzes out OK at DC, it will
generally be
OK at RF.
Ian.

With all due respect, that's a rather frightening position to maintain.
I've had to replace both .750 and .500 because of dings. Complaints were
that certain channels were out. A couple of years ago I had to replace a
4 foot piece of RG 6 inside a wall (splitter to outlet) that had the
attenuation of a 100 foot cable. 950MHz to 1450MHz worked (though not
near as well as it should have), but the rest of the bandwidth up to
2200MHz didn't work at all. Electricians had greatly exceeded the minimum
bend radius when they made up the outlet.

DC does not necessarily mean that RF will work, nor does RF necessarily
mean that DC will work.


Ed, I'm sure what you say is true. However, one-off moderate mismatches
(or even repeated moderate mismatches which are buffered by attenuation),
such as might be caused by the use of poor quality connectors, should not
cause a failure of service unless the service would have been marginal if
the connectors were good.

As for bends in cable, if you can, tie a loose knot in a piece of coax,
run a wideband sweep through it, and observe the output. Now pull the knot
tight. Let me know when the output starts to be affected.

Let me say again, I'm not advocating sloppy practices and poor
workmanship. Manufacturers' specs and industry standards should always be
adhered to. This avoids endless truck-rolls (God - I hate that
Americanism!) to the 1% of customers where some bright spark has cut one
corner too many. But, especially in the amateur world, we should maybe not
worry too much about using things which industry has rejected, often for
reasons which have absolutely no impact on what we are trying to do. So
I'm NOT throwing out my stash of crimp and screw-on F-connectors!

Ian.
--

On Apr 5, 12:53 pm, "szilagyic" wrote:
Hello,

I am just trying to get an updated list of the top brands of RG-6 quad
shield coax cable. I have seen posts from a few years back mentioning
Belden, Carol, and Commscope, but I just wanted to get an updated
list. I have seen Carol and Zenith brands at local stores recently,
are these any good? Mainly going to use this cable for running feeds
from HDTV & analog TV antennas in the walls of a house.

Thank you very much for all feedback,
--
Chris

I'm almost certain that I'm out of my league (having read some of the
previous replies), but for some reason feel bound to input my 2 cents
worth (unsure of equivalent value in the mother country United
Kingdom).

1). periodicity, as I understand it, is more likely to "suck out" ONE
particular channel frequency, not several. On the surface, it sounds
more like ingress, or some kind of beat.

2). say what you will about crimp and screw on connectors, but the
fact is that I make a living as a "noise / leakage" technician, and
replace a LOT of them having tracked them down with a spectrum
analyzer. Lot's of home builders and home owners use them because
they're less expensive, but not installed correctly. Perhaps a trained
and experienced installer can put them on properly, but those are few
and far between ........ screw on connectors especially SUCK in my
humble opinion.

3). I'm wondering about perhaps a "store bought" / inferior brand of
splitter that might also have been replaced along with the connectors,
or perhaps a cross-threaded, corroded (or otherwise inferior)
connection, that might be creating the problem. Though unlikely, might
be bad cable (even if it IS new "brand name" wire .... stranger things
have happened).

Subtle problem, more info is needed. Ideally, a good tech with the
proper equipment could look at it and track down the problem. In here,
it's all speculation and educated guesses.

I only have 30 + yrs experience in the cable industry, so I'm
apparently the FNG in this thread.

Good luck.

On Apr 7, 12:38 am, "Steve Barker"
wrote:
cool. I already got the green connector today from another seller $16 for a
hundred plus $16 to ship G . Still a deal. Going after the tool now.

thanks for the info.

--
Steve Barker

"Carl Navarro" wrote in message

...

On Fri, 6 Apr 2007 15:58:29 -0500, "Steve Barker"
wrote:

Carl, is ebay item 320099467506 along the right lines?

Yep, that's the tool, here's the reference to my Detroit Connection

http://cgi.ebay.com/100-DIGICON-DS6Q...TORS-FOR-RG6-Q...

Carl


I too purchased some of the Digicon fittings (DS6 and DS6Q) on Ebay.
Have already replaced some of my crimp-on fittings on some older RG-6
and also the new RG-6 QS, and noticed some signal improvement on a few
stations. They have completely eliminated some minor interference we
were seeing from our 30 db amp. These are great fittings, especially
for the price.

Just wanted to mention that I also got the Zenith ZDS-5061 compression
tool for $15 on Ebay, and it works great with these fittings.

Thanks again for all of the info!

--
Chris

On Apr 7, 11:14 am, "Ed Nielsen" wrote:
I started using Times when I started in cable in '85. Have used the other 2
aforementioned brands, but still spec Times for our systems.

That tool, as well as three of the ones listed herehttp://www.cencom94.com/gpage.html2.html(CT-FBR, PCT-DRS-CT, &
PCT-DRS-CT-AS), Cable Pro's LCCT-1, and many others fit those fittings.
Only sort of exception in that group of fittings is PPC. They originally
started out with the EX Series, which is about 19mm in length. Then others
started making compression connectors that were 21mm in length, which is
what the majority of them are. A few years ago, AT&T Broadband pushed PPC
into making a 21mm fitting, which they labeled EXXL. PCT also has a
Universal connector (TRS Series) which is a different length.


There are many compression tols out here. The one that I started with
is the Ideal tool. It can be gotten in any Home Depot, but it cost far
more than it's worth. I think it is still about $58, and will only
crimp one size of compression connector. The other tool I bought is
designed like the one you reference above. It has orange handles, and
can crimp RCA, BNC, and all compression connectors. I paid in the mid
$30's for mine, but I've seen them priced as high as the Ideal tool as
well.
Someone at work gave me an old compression tool that was left at there
house by a cable tech many years ago. It is very old and similar to
the Ideal tool, but not as heavy. The tool I have can crimp the short
compression connectors, as well as the long ones My tool is made by
Stern, and says Perma-Seal-II on it. It has a cutter on it, and the
extra dies to make it work with BNC, and RCA are secured to the inside
of the handle by being screwed into the inside edge. It is a great
design.