RG6 Quad clips
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Posted by Svensontini on August 18, 2007, 12:30 pm
Please log in for more thread options Hi Guys, My cable modem has been a bit flaky lately. My TV pictures have been acceptable but the modem drops in and out. The modem signal is usually around -8 or -9db, the signal to noise ratio is usually around 31, and the upstream power is in the high 40s. I don't have the cable company "wire guard" on my cable service - just can't see spending $75 or so a year for simple wiring that should be good for many years! The cable company says the signal is good to the house and the problem is in the internal wiring. The cable comes into the northeast corner of my house, runs up into the attic to cross the living space and comes down the wall that separates the house and the garage. There's a splitter that sends signal to the living room tv that's on the other side of the wall from the garage and down to the family room tv downstairs. The line in the basement has another splitter in it that feeds my cable modem. The cable in the garage and that feeds the TVs and cable modem is RG-6 quad shield - they replaced it when they installed my digital cable and modem a couple years ago. The cable that runs from the cable company drop across the attic to the garage is RG59 though -> they just spliced into it when it came
into the garage.
The RG59 must be fastened down as I can't pull it and get it to move much (there's a mountain of blown in insuation in the attic and I haven't swam through it to investigate further (and I'm sure that's why the cable company just splied into the existing wiring -> they
didn't want to swim through the insulation either!)).
We've lived in the house for 10 years and the cable was there when we moved in, so I'm sure it's pretty old stuff and is ready for replacement. My plan is to install a new RG quad shield line to the garage, use a Channel Vision HF-2 splitter and split the cable into one lead that goes direct to the cable modem and one to feed the TVs (rather than having my cable modem behind two splitters as it is now). I don't want to deal with the attic full of blown insulation so my thoughts are to just run it outside along the underside of the soffit till it gets above the rear garage entry door and then to poke it up through the soffit and into the attic above the garage (the attic area of the garage doesn't have the blown in insualtion). I'd really like the install to look good and perform well and I seem to be having some problems finding good RG6 quad shield clips to support the cable on it's 50' horizontal run across the back of the house. Most are nail in and I dont' like that idea - first I don't want to miss and hammer my cable! And second since it'll be hanging upside down I'd think screws would work better than the more common nails. It seems that most clips are plastic too and I wonder about their durability. Since I can't find what I want I'm wondering if I can make something? I'm thinking of maybe cutting up a 1by board, using an letter N drill bit (.302"/7.67mm) to drill a hole through it and close to the edge. Then I could screw the board to the soffit and thread the coax through the hole. The hole is just slightly larger than the nominal size of the cable and would be wider than most clips so it should give support wiithout digging into the coax. I could even countersink the ends of the holes so they don't have charp 90 degree edges to dig in. Does that sound like a good plan? Or is there a good quality clip out there I haven't found? My cable hasn't arrived yet - how stiff is the cable and how much distance should I put between the clips to give good support? Thanks for any inputs! -Bob- | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Ed Nielsen on August 18, 2007, 1:33 pm
Please log in for more thread options Something like this would do the trick: <http://www.wiringproducts.com/?target=dept_91.html&gclid=CLOR1K3K_40CFRVdYQodunCsRQ>.
Perhaps Just go to Home Depot or somewhere like that and look for cable clips like the phone company used to use. Svensontini wrote: >
> I'd really like the install to look good and perform well and I seem > to be having some problems finding good RG6 quad shield clips to > support the cable on it's 50' horizontal run across the back of the > house. Most are nail in and I dont' like that idea - first I don't > want to miss and hammer my cable! And second since it'll be hanging > upside down I'd think screws would work better than the more common > nails. It seems that most clips are plastic too and I wonder about > their durability. > > Since I can't find what I want I'm wondering if I can make something? > I'm thinking of maybe cutting up a 1by board, using an letter N drill > bit (.302"/7.67mm) to drill a hole through it and close to the edge. > Then I could screw the board to the soffit and thread the coax through > the hole. The hole is just slightly larger than the nominal size of > the cable and would be wider than most clips so it should give support > wiithout digging into the coax. I could even countersink the ends of > the holes so they don't have charp 90 degree edges to dig in. > > Does that sound like a good plan? Or is there a good quality clip out > there I haven't found? My cable hasn't arrived yet - how stiff is the > cable and how much distance should I put between the clips to give > good support? > > Thanks for any inputs! > > -Bob- > | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Svensontini on August 18, 2007, 4:27 pm
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> Something like this would do the trick:
> <http://www.wiringproducts.com/?target=dept_91.html&gclid=CLOR1K3K_40C...>. > > Perhaps Just go to Home Depot or somewhere like that and look for cable > clips like the phone company used to use. Hi Ed, Thanks for the reply! I don't think I want to use cable ties - from what I've read they aren't really a good idea for quad shield. Quad shield seems to need a gentle touch - support without binding/pinching, no sharp bends, etc. and I'd think it would be pretty easy to over tighten a cable tie. The padded clamps look interesting, but I'd like to have a look at them first hand before ordering a bunch - I want something that's a pretty close fit as I don't want the cable drooping or anything. Doing some poking around I noticed that 1/4" sch 40 pvc is just slightly larger than RG6QS. It'd be nice to just hang a piece of conduit and run the cable through that -> lots of support without the worry of pinching the cable.
Unfortunately I couldn't find any in town. 8-<
I'm thinking I may have to give the improvised wooden ones a shot, but I thought I'd ask first as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has ran this stuff underneath a soffit before so i figured someone would have a good solution. Actually I'm probably being too anal about it - the ones with nails would probably work just fine since the line will be under and against the soffit so ice and stuff shouldn't really weight it down, wind shouldn't catch it, etc. so the nails probably wouldn't work loose . . . guess I'm more worried about my lack of coordination when running a hammer -> I can just see me squashing my spiffy new cable
flat with a misguided hammer blow!
Thanks again! -Bob- | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by DLR on August 18, 2007, 7:48 pm
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Svensontini wrote: >> Something like this would do the trick:
>> <http://www.wiringproducts.com/?target=dept_91.html&gclid=CLOR1K3K_40C...>. >> >> Perhaps Just go to Home Depot or somewhere like that and look for cable >> clips like the phone company used to use. >
You're afraid of the white plastic ones that have a nail on the side? I mean you
> Hi Ed, > > Thanks for the reply! > > I don't think I want to use cable ties - from what I've read they > aren't really a good idea for quad shield. Quad shield seems to need > a gentle touch - support without binding/pinching, no sharp bends, > etc. and I'd think it would be pretty easy to over tighten a cable > tie. > > The padded clamps look interesting, but I'd like to have a look at > them first hand before ordering a bunch - I want something that's a > pretty close fit as I don't want the cable drooping or anything. > can flex these fairly easy with finger tips. David | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Svensontini on August 18, 2007, 9:07 pm
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I dunno if I'm really "afraid" of them, but since they are hanging upside down I'd rather have screws since they hold better. I also suck at wood butchering (and I don't like heights and I'll be standing on a ladder to do this) so I can just see myself missing on the very last clip and smashing my nice new cable! If I could find a nice meaty plastic clip with a screw I'd be happy . . . have you seen any? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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