Ribbon Cable for C Band Dish Expensive?

[jsattv]

Guys, I have been reading that the best way to run cabling from a big C Band Dish - for Sensor & 36 volt DC Motor, and LNBF's - is to go with a Ribbon Cable? Is this the way to go, and how much per foot is a reasonable price, as a local dealer is quoting me as high as $1.25 per foot? So for 100 ft it could get a bit pricey.

 

[Tron]

I've seen it cheaper on E-Bay, but yeah, it is very expensive. There was a guy on E-Bay selling it by the foot, I'm not sure if he still does...

 

[jsattv]

Thanks Tron. I'll check out ebay. Then I guess the only other options to are to run the cables to the Dish individually maybe underground in a small conduit from the backyard to the house? I can get RG 6 quad cable but what kind if cable is required for the Motor, Sensor? Is it 5 conductor cable?

 

[gabshere]

when i found a deal on ebay , i searched & found the cable listed as tvro or 8136 both apply to the ribbon cable. also a web site that has some listed ribbon cable

also you can make your own a cat 5 type cable would work for the corotor ( and sensor) and rat shack should have some 18 awg pair cheap then add coax....

usually a ribbon cable includes 2 coax , one cable of three wrapped 20 awg wires and one cable with 2 wrapped 18 awg wires and three wrapped 22 awg wires and one unwrapped 22 awg wire.

depends on how much you need , i might have a bit extra...

 

[jsattv]

Thanks Gabshere. What I want to try and do is to use an older Uniden 9900 Receiver its Power Supply thru a Ribbon or other cable to a 12 Foot Dish and Actuator. According to the 10 year old Uniden manual it says to connect: GND, PULSE, +6V, from the Uniden Rx to the Polarization Motor at the Dish location. It also says to connect 36V DC: +, -, B, Sen, Gnd, from the Uniden Power Supply to the Actuator at the Dish. So looks like I need a Ribbon cable with minimum 4 conductors from Uniden Pwr Supply, and minimum 2 connections from Uniden 9900 Sat Rx. Can this cable be buried from backyard to house, or do I need to put it inside a 1 or 1.5 inch conduit from backyard to house? For the approx 100 ft of cable that I will need if I use Ribbon Cable it won't be cheap! Also looks like I will also have to add on Connectors re a Compression Tool at Both ends of the coax.

I also want to try and Slave in my FTA Receiver into this mix, and have had some advice from Tron on that setup. Hoping to get or post a drawing soon of the whole setup.

 

[Tron]

The compression connectors are the best option for terminating coax. There is a cheap tool available at Lowes (about $15) which does the job quite well. I find that the PPC EX6, Digicon DS6UT and DS6Q connectors work very well for most types of RG-6 coax.

 

[pmasterp]

I know this thread has been for a couple of years without any response but for me it was a very good information since I want to make my inexpensive C-Band dish install. I will keep you posted as soon as I complete my project.

 

[Greg Mueller]

Get some RG6 from Home Depot (quad if you like)
Then look around on the net for rotor cable. Try "Wireman". They have different gauges for different lengths of runs
The WireMan - Rotor cables and control wires - pricing

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I used RG6 and sprinkler cable and all works fine.

 

[goaliebob99]

Sprinkler wire works well also! Whoops Scott beat me to it!