Mike wrote:
I have a few questions about (analog) cable TV. The repair man is
coming in a few days and I want some info so I know exactly what we're
both talking about. So if anyone can answer any of these questions I
would be truly grateful.

1. Should inside cables be replaced after a certain amount of time? If
so, after how many years?
2. Should outside exposed cables be replaced after a certain amount of
time? If so, after how many years?

Not necessarily. Many companies do routinely replace outdoor drops if
they are beyond a certain age but this is more a matter of leakage
control rather than anything due to aging. We're talking 10 years old.
Nowadays the push is for cable internet and this often requires that
the older cables be upgraded to a higher shielding than what might have
been used years ago.
Neither has much to do with the customers reception, its more of a
house-keeping job for the cable company.


3. What kind of cable should be used in the house, r59? Or something
else?

RG-6 is preferred with tri- or quad- shield if there is internet service
on the system. 59 is frowned on both for loss and the fact that its
probably so old it only has minimal shielding. Its rare to find a cable
company using 59 anymore.

4. What kind of cable should be used outside if it's going to be
exposed (like if it goes up on the roof and on the side of the house
where the sun hits it)?

Same RG-6. CATV cable is quite rugged in respect to UV breakdown.
There was some bad stuff made during the oil shortage back in the 70s
but I'm sure its all gone by now and I haven't seen that problem again
for 25-30 years.

5. What kind of cable should be used underground? At one point the
phone company cut the cable and it had to be replaced and I get the
feeling it was replaced with some cheap crap.

I don't know about cheap crap because none of the CATV vendors sell what
I would call cheap crap. Its all much better quality than you're going
to find in a retail store. Underground cable, again typically RG-6 with
tri/quad shield, normally has a sticky "flooding compound" between the
jacket and the braid to discourage moisture ingress. Without the
flooding compound it won't last very long underground in most areas.

6. What would make the reception worse after the underground cable was
replaced?

Bad connector (common), Bad piece of cable (rare), cable damaged during
burial (common), bad device where it is connected on either end.


Thanks in advance for any answers you can provide. I'd ask the cable
guy but every guy that comes out here always tells me something
different so I never know what to believe.

Cable installation is basically an entry level job and these fellas
usually don't have much in the way of technical orientation. The guys
who bury drops are often contractors from a landscaping company and know
even less. And on the other end of the stick, the good technical people
don't deal with simple installation troubleshooting. So yeah, there's
often a gap there.

I take it that you suspect your drop is bad or something like that?
Thats a simple matter of measuring the signal level going into it and
seeing what comes out at the other end. An installer should be able to
handle that. Most companies use a high channel around 450 MHz and a low
channel around 2 or 3 for routine testing. In the case of RG-6 the loss
could be expected to be 4.0db and 1.32db respectively per 100 feet.
There's no connector loss to add in but don't forget to add in 4db for
any 2-way splits.

HTH,
Bill M