R59 vs R6 cable

[shodobe]

I have been having trouble wiyh drop-outs only on sat119, just for a second or two. This is irritating especially when recording movies. I went out to redo the ends when I noticed that the cable is a brand marked "CATV" and it seems it is R59. Does this make much difference in reception? I am thinking of changinf out the whole cable system anyway because I am out of ideas to stop the drop-outs. All of my transponders rad out at 68% to 75% on 119. The other sat 110 reads out at 90 and above. Strange. I wasn't sure if there was a way to bring in 119 better without sacrificing 110. Thanks, Mike

 

[jerryez]

When I switched from Directv to Dish, I could not get any signal with Dish. I found that I had rg59. I switched to rg6 and have had perfect reception ever since and that has been several years. The better cable can only improve your reception.

 

[silversurfer]

RG-59 is not recommended for use with DBS systems. This is almost certainly the cause of your problem. Long runs of RG-59 will cause signal problems.

 

[shodobe]

silversurfer and jerryez, thanks for the reply. The cable was here when I bought the house and was used with a Primestar system. The installer, 7 years ago, said it would work fine. Stupid me! I never really looked at it until yesterday and can only find the markings "CATV", no RG59 or RG6. I changed the connectors on one and my new ones that I had bought for RG6 would not fit, too small. The RG59 worked, so I am assuming it is 59 cable. I will plan on changing out all of my cable for RG6 and hope it fixs the problem. Thanks again, Mike

 

[Mike500]

CATV is a UL listing designation used for general purpose cable tv residential community TV applications. It CAN either be RG59 or RG6.

The way to tell is to look at the center wire. If it is thin like telephone wire (24 or 24 ga.), it is RG59. RG6 center conductor is 18 guage or the thickness of the wire like a regular paper clip.

 

[shodobe]

I changed out the cable coming off the 119 bird to RG6. I happened to have some. I hooked it up and my reception increased from 10-14 points! I am in the low 80s up from the high 60s to low 70s. I really think this will help with my dropouts. I am waiting for MLBEI to come on at 4pm to see if this really helped. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for the help. Mike