Antenna cable? Copper clad steel centre - for RG6 - WHY? - Timbo in Oz - Cable Asylum

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Antenna cable? Copper clad steel centre - for RG6 - WHY?

Timbo in Oz

Some use solid copper, some don't. Cost? Surely pure copper would have less loss and provide a long-life contact?

I may need to re-cable my house and its current 4 outlets. And I want the cable to last. Last lot installed in 1998 or 1999. Cold frosty winters, and sometimes snow.

Why? DTV has arrived and analogue ended and I cannot get one company's channels. FM is still fine, and all the other TV stations come through fine on their HDTV or SDTV channels. Luckily everything comes from one big tower on a big hill.

I think the existing cable may be a bit damp? All the cable outside is RG6 quad shield and is quite flexible and has drip loops.

Most of the network under the house is RG11 which does have a copper clad steel centre conductor. I was given a reel of it.

There are three antennas on the mast, an old VHF phased-array used for VHF TV (vertical), a big old Tandy/Antennacraft wide-band VHF Yagi now used for FM (horizontal), and a 24 element Yagi for UHF band IV. The on-mast combiner is a 4-input FUBA unit, from Germany.

Three of the wall plates have FM and TV coax sockets. One has a single socket, and it's unused, but has a 'shorting plug?' in it. Is it worth going to F-connectors on the wall plates?

I also use the mast for the ropes to hold a tuned random-wire AM antenna, a good neighbour's chimney is where it ends. The down lead for that is one side of some UV-stable twisted 300 ohm ribbon with the free side grounded to a ground-rod hammered in. It feeds the wide-audio-bandwidth mono AM stage in 'the tuna'.

There's a 4-way splitter under the house, too.

TIA

Warmest

Tim Bailey

Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger

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Topic - Antenna cable? Copper clad steel centre - for RG6 - WHY? - Timbo in Oz 04:18:09 07/25/12 (14)

RE the "shorting plug" - Jon Risch 22:37:52 08/04/12 (2)

With my OLDdddd AVO multi-meter how do I check it? - Timbo in Oz 00:17:30 08/05/12 (1)

RE: With my OLDdddd AVO multi-meter how do I check it? - rick_m 18:36:21 08/05/12 (0)

RE: Antenna cable? Copper clad steel centre - for RG6 - WHY? - rick_m 08:19:08 07/25/12 (10)

My issue with the steel conductor is that the copper can scratch off when using typical non-F type wall plates - Timbo in Oz 06:34:18 08/05/12 (0)

For RF use - unclestu 18:12:41 07/25/12 (8)

RE: For RF use - unclestu 18:23:00 08/02/12 (7)

RE: For RF use - rick_m 19:08:29 08/02/12 (6)

RF coax - unclestu 15:06:47 08/03/12 (5)

RE: RF coax - rick_m 22:04:24 08/03/12 (4)

RE: RF coax - Jon Risch 22:35:40 08/04/12 (3)

RE: RF coax - rick_m 09:04:42 08/05/12 (2)

RE: RF coax - Jon Risch 21:49:20 08/05/12 (1)

RE: RF coax - rick_m 12:23:55 08/06/12 (0)

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