Making my own coax cables

What kind of coax are you planning on using? There is a big difference between RG-174/U and LMR400.

And what connectors? BNC, F, Type N, SMC, Mini UHF, TNC, or ?

For my basic home TV cable use, I just use reqular wire cutters for the cable. For stripping and the F connectors, I have a Sargent 8600ESC (for RG6 and 59). It strips the end, you put on a Snap-N-Seal type connector, insert it into a holder, and screw down a little thumbscrew to push it on.

RG-6 or 59

Waste of money, no benefit.

Yes, the Snap-N-Seal versions are used by majority of CATV companies now for home drops - and are best choice - easy to install ! My local store - home DIY and building contractors

April specials (download PDF)

There are specific connectors for each cable type RG-6/U Quad (purple) and RG-6/U Dual shielded (blue) and RG-59/U Dual shield (Orange).

Here is my local dealer - NW suburbs of Chicago

Install tools (various mfg)

gb

BTW, Cable does make a difference.

I now prefer Belden 7916A RG-6/U for backbone coax runs in a house from cable or satellite drop point. It is swept to 3 GHz .. great for any future bandwidth expansion. a.. 18 awg solid bare copper center conductor , the best choice for baseband thru broadband applications

Many CATV companies are installing coax that has ratings at least 2 GHz swept.

I use to use Belden 1189A (which is good to 1 GHz - 18 awg solid copper covered steel center conductor) Don't remove copper covering from steel inner conductor)

For RG-59/U small runs - Belden 9275 is good ! RG59/U CATV Coax

JR North hath wroth:

Very bad idea.

Gold is great for corrosive or marine atmospheres. If you live in a salt fog, then gold connectors are the way to go.

However, there are problems. You must use gold on both the plug and receptacle. Mixing a gold connector with a tin, nickel, cadmium, or solder plate, connector will result in enough electrolysis to trash the non-gold side in short order. If you're supplying gold plugs, but the customer has a device with non-gold receptacles, there may be problems.

Gold is also only good for "dry" loads that do NOT carry any DC. This is correct for most CATV applications, but not with DBS dish receivers. These have DC power to the LNB going through the coax. Connect and disconnect a gold connection with the power live and a load, and even the small current will blow a hole through the gold plating.

The bad news is that this also applies to ALL parts of the connection. Tin plated coax braid and aluminized mylar shields will act the same way as a mismatched connector material selection. To do it right, literally everything has to be gold or there will be electrolysis at the junction. Since nobody makes gold plated RG-6/u cable, I suggest you forget the idea of using just gold plugs.

TV coax...OK.

For RG-6/U I just use a good pair of diagonal cutters for cutting.

For stripping and crimping I like these two reasonably priced tools.

Mike Berger hath wroth:

Well, I have a few of the consumer gold connectors around. They don't tarnish so I presume they're really gold plated. MIL-G-45204 spec connector plating is mostly 50 microns thick. Cheap commercial flash plating goes down to perhaps 5 microns. I couldn't find any specs on the consumer variety other than most claim that it's 24k (pure) gold.

Anyway, it really doesn't matter with RG-6/u because the all important center conductor is bare copper. There is no center pin on an F connector as it's just an extension of the coax cable center wire. All that nice gold to make a better ground connection?

Jeff, those home photos are pretty amazing. You should register with the EPA... lol

"John" hath wroth:

I spent my first half century collecting this mess. I'll spend the next half century getting rid of it. My office is worse.

As for the EPA... about 10 years ago, I was collecting dead UPS batteries from customers with the intent of eventually delivering them to a recycler. The collection grew and grew and grew until I had a fairly large pile in back of a customers warehouse. Someone complained to the EPA and my pile was declared a toxic waste dump. Apparently anything over 500 lbs of lead is considered hazardous. No fine was imposed and this provided the incentive to recycle the mess. Sorry, I couldn't find any photos.

Anyway, the bigger the mess, the better it works:

Travis,

Thanks for the links. I picked up a good Data Shark round cable cutter at Fry's yesterday for only $6. I also got a cheap, generic crimping tool for $7.50 just to see how they work. I tried crimping on an F-connector yesterday for the first time. It took several tries and I cracked the sleeve on the connector on the first try. I don't have a stripper yet so I'm still manually stripping the sheidling. They had an "RCA" brand stripper for $20 that I almost got but it looked the same as the one you posted for only $10 so I think I'll get that one instead.

The F-connectors I got have really short sleeves and the inner tube thing that fits onto the dielectric is smallish. I've seen different types of F-connectors and some of my coax cable (labeled Belden 8228) has a larger diameter dielectric. So I guess I'll need to get some different F-connectors.

Travis Jordan wrote:

The little F connectors you have are for RG-59 and they aren't designed for use with hex crimp tools. For those you need a ring-crimp tool. Personally I don't like the round ring-style crimp connectors. The shield connection is unreliable.

If you have different types of coax you need to match the connector to the cable you are using.

I don't recognize Belden 8228. Is this an RG-59 or RG-6 sized coax?

Really? That might explain why I was having such a hard time crimping it with my hex crimp tool!

I don't know. I've had it for many years. It probably dates back 20 years or so.

What's the difference between RG-59 ad RG-6?

Is the Belden 8228 a single-shield cable? If so, don't use it for cable-TV distribution. Too much ingress/egress. You'll want RG-6 in double-shield or better.