RG 59 Problem and need a pro's opinion !!

[D-Bone]

Here is my RG59 problem.

My company is just starting a sat project for a new condo complex with 24 units per building. The electrician did all of the wiring for low voltage for the building and made the mistake of using RG59 for one of the buildings with 24 condos. The way that the complex is wired is as follows, each unit has all rooms wired with RG59 to a closet in the unit, then a single RG59 down to the switch in the complexes network room (each unit varies from 35ft to 230ft away) then we have RG6 from the network room to the roof where we have 2 sat per building one for dish and one for DTV.We have done 2 other buildings on the property with the same setup except the electrician ran all RG6 and it worked great.
I know that it is obvious that RG59 was a stupid move from the electrician, but now that all of the condos are finished, sheetrocked and painted there is no rewiring possible. Today we installed the first account thinking it would at least work (Dish, 1 hopper and 3 joeys) and already had problems, the hopper is staying on 1 of 1 and that is the best we can get. I am not sure if we possibly have a bad 44 switch in our network room or if it is the RG59.
So here is my question. Would the RG59 instantly be a problem or should it at-least work for now ? and Is there anything i can do to amplify the signal from the network room to the units or reduce stress without overheating the RG59 overtime? I am not too worried about from the closet to the tvs with 59 because they are only 10-20 ft runs. Any suggestions on what the best thing to do is given the situation??
Anything would be great, thanks.

 

[Claude Greiner]

You need to contact the owner and let them know their electrician screwed up before you start cutting drywall and re-running cable.

 

[nsafreak]

Yep I agree with Claude on this one. You may find a temporary fix but in the long run you're going to have to take out the RG59 lines and run RG6. I'd have the owners see if he can somehow charge the work back against the original electrician as he had to have known it would not work for a satellite setup.

 

[the mack]

real lame, where do you even find rg59 anymore? lol....must of been trying to save a few bucks.....that being said, I would check the switch, fittings and or signal too cuz I have seen 59 installations work.

 

[jerryez]

When I first switched to sat from cable tv, my house had rg59, I could not get the sat to work at all with the rg59, but when I switched to rg6, it worked fine. That was when cable tv was analog. The cable will have to be replaced and the electrican should be backcharged.

 

[empiretc]

The electrician did all of the wiring for low voltage for the building and made the mistake of using RG59 for one of the buildings with 24 condos. ........

That always drives us NUTS!!! Run into it all the time----> Phone guys want to run ethernet cabling, electricians want to install cctv/catv cabling, and cable guys want to setup internet connections....... Not saying others are not capable, but if it is not their area of expertise, they should not pretend like it is.

As Clause said, make the building owner aware as they may go back to the electrician and have him correct it- he should, as an honest business man.

 

[tkwasny]

Geez. I use RG214 to get the signal from the antenna/amp tree on my shed, underground, through my basement, up to a splitter amp/distribution system. A whole 150 feet. If your not familiar with this cable, its 75 Ohm the diameter of your upper index finger. About 2db loss at 900Mhz at 150 feet.

 

[boba]

Geez. I use RG214 to get the signal from the antenna/amp tree on my shed, underground, through my basement, up to a splitter amp/distribution system. A whole 150 feet. If your not familiar with this cable, its 75 Ohm the diameter of your upper index finger. About 2db loss at 900Mhz at 150 feet.

Why the heck are you still using that crap? I haven't used that since early "C" band days. I think I still have some "N" fittings some where in the shed.

 

[arcticracer]

RG-214 is a 50 ohm cable.

 

[arcticracer]

Maybe you meant another type of cable? There are few cables with only 2 db loss per 150' at 900, RG-214 would have about 11.5 db loss at 150'. It is usually used up to VHF only for high power transmit (50 ohm).

 

[jarvantgroup]

Here is my RG59 problem.

My company is just starting a sat project for a new condo complex with 24 units per building. The electrician did all of the wiring for low voltage for the building and made the mistake of using RG59 for one of the buildings with 24 condos. The way that the complex is wired is as follows, each unit has all rooms wired with RG59 to a closet in the unit, then a single RG59 down to the switch in the complexes network room (each unit varies from 35ft to 230ft away) then we have RG6 from the network room to the roof where we have 2 sat per building one for dish and one for DTV.We have done 2 other buildings on the property with the same setup except the electrician ran all RG6 and it worked great.
I know that it is obvious that RG59 was a stupid move from the electrician, but now that all of the condos are finished, sheetrocked and painted there is no rewiring possible. Today we installed the first account thinking it would at least work (Dish, 1 hopper and 3 joeys) and already had problems, the hopper is staying on 1 of 1 and that is the best we can get. I am not sure if we possibly have a bad 44 switch in our network room or if it is the RG59.
So here is my question. Would the RG59 instantly be a problem or should it at-least work for now ? and Is there anything i can do to amplify the signal from the network room to the units or reduce stress without overheating the RG59 overtime? I am not too worried about from the closet to the tvs with 59 because they are only 10-20 ft runs. Any suggestions on what the best thing to do is given the situation??
Anything would be great, thanks.

You might be able to get some other model of Dish Network rcvr to work on RG59 for a while, but the Hopper will always have trouble on RG59. Most RG59 is rated to pass frequencies up to 1Ghz. The actual performance of RG59 may exceed the 1GZ depending on the length of the run. VIP and older models can run on it. It's not recommended. The Hopper uses frequencies up to 3Ghz. Most RG6 is rated, or swept-tested up to 3Ghz. So based on what type of equipment your tenants are using would dictate if the equipment would work at all. Definitely, the Hopper will have trouble on the RG59. Check out the attachment.

View attachment HopperJoeySystem_Wk1-1.pdf

If you've got some extra RG6, you could always bring the Hopper in closet with a small TV, hook a short piece of the cable from the switch to the Hopper and see if it works. If it does, then the RG509 is definitely your problem.

Trying to just make the RG59 'work' is not an option. Kind of like bringing a garden hose on the fire truck, and trying to make it 'work' on the hydrants. Trying to make it pass more water. It just won't work. It is what it is. RG59 won't pass the higher frequencies.

 

[tempVAdish]

Maybe he meant RG-11, that's 75 ohm....

???

 

[JerryDowning]

I have replaced cable by attaching a barrel connector to the end of the old cable as well as to the end of the new cable. As the old cable is pulled out, the new cable is fed in. This will only work if the old cable not tied down or strapped to other cables.

 

[sperry85]

Alternatively, you cut the connectors off both wires, strip the wires back and tie them together. Put black tape around it to keep them from pulling apart. This I feel will work better than barreling the connectors.