How important is cable in a D* / E* install?

[Sharaya]

For many years, while doing tech work in Albuquerque, I would only use RG-6 Quad cable. Supposedly, Albuquerque has serious issues with signal leakage due to the use of very high-power transmitters on Sandia Peak. The excess power just leaks into cables, fittings, and tuner modules. I have no idea if the story is true, but RG-6 Quad did reduce or eliminate the dreaded "ghost stripe" on KOAT-7 and KOB-4, so I didn't think any different. (I had also been told that this was the result of the tuner picking up multiple reflections of the same signal, each one being delayed just slightly from the last. Again, it's not my area of expertise, so I don't know).

The installer who just did our installation (we now live in Arizona) thought I was crazy for spending extra money on RG-6Q. He said RG-6 is more than adequate for satellite (it was less than $8 difference between the two in 500-foot rolls at Tony Stewart's favorite home improvement store). He's also never been able to get the signal values on other HR20 units that he got on mine.

Did he just get lucky on the fine-tuning of the dish install? Or does quad-shielded cable make a difference?

Just curious...

 

[grydlok]

doesn't make a difference.

 

[Sharaya]

I wondered if such.

Well, at least the next cocktail party, I'll have something to make me sound more intelligent than I probably am.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Would you like to look at my quad-shielded trunk?"

 

[RandallA]

I had a similar problem in my area so I had to run RG6 Quad to all locations. There is no diffence in using RG6 or RG6 Quad for satellite but it made me feel better when I replaced all the runs with Quad.