solid copper wire

[petetitan]

There is multiple problems, with both side of the business. Contractor side-Inhouse side, wire that is required is RG6 SOLID COPPER, I have been a contractor for many years and see a difference in the wire's performance. Problem is the cost associated to that wire for the payout of the job, some people think all contractors just take there money and run, not true some pay taxes, have homes and families to support, so the original number they are to be paid is not the number in the end, so for them to save along the way, they try to get wire along the way that will do the job some of the time, is it right, no, but DTV needs to address some of there internal policies, and the cost of wire, plus any chargebacks, can in some areas with some HSP's hinder a check 1/2 its value, week after week, and the managers in these companys only think that, I paid him THE OWNER X amount of dollars, problem is they never take into account how much your techs have to be paid from your check, and how some of the cost in the business have to be eaten up by the owner so the tech doesnt walk away, and now every meeting is going after the tech the face of DTV, but where is the motivation to do a better job

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

Let see, a single receiver, required 100 ft of solid copper wire, 6 digicom connector, one wall plate and ground block. Required one hour of work time. How much cost for the materials and How much the pay from DTV if not an employee.

If you think its not worth the hassel to do the job, better look for something else. Thats why lots good techs look for other job.

Actually, those numbers are all way off. You need to drop four lines off every dish with the exception of the 18 and swm. So your at x' of dual wire, 1 quad block, x' ground wire, ground clamp, 10 fittings, x' single wire, wall plates are not required from my hsp.

 

[nydiver]

It seems the one thing that will do in any fitting is water and freezing and thawing. Each time the cycle happens the center wire gets pushed away just a little until you get a spark plug effect that burns the wire away.

Second most common defect is the little bit of wire debris shorting the cable. Unless you look for it while cutting the fitting you will never find it. Jobs done in the dark suffer from this defect; good fittings used under poor conditions.

I still like $9.00 / hundred instead of $25.00.....$17.00 ain't too shabby.

Joe

A few comments quickly.
1. CCS has better propagation than solid copper, i.e. for high frequency rf, ccs is a better cable. For power passing CCS sucks and is high resistance as you raise the current flow, hence why DirecTV is lowering the amount of power passed over the wire. Reality going forward is CCS wire is going to take over, cheaper, easier to get, higher quality. No high end cable manufacturer is making SC cable, NONE. SC cable is hard pressed to pass insertion loss specs at 3GHz. Also return loss stinks, not even close to -30 db, where as a POS CCS with no splices in the reel passes with flying colors.

On a side note, Comcast, Cox, TW, Charter, Bresnan, and any other CC doesn't carry on the truck "special" cable to get to the demarc, Times, Comscope, and now PPC do not supply SC aerial messangered or even regular cable. That's simply ridiculous.

2. DirecTV picked PPC for HSP due to quality, ease of stocking only 1 connector, and tech feedback as to ease of use. They were not even close to being the best priced in a reverse auction. So say what you want, DirecTV picked a connector based on what they saw as the most important demographics, not because someone was in bed with them.

 

[nydiver]

It seems the one thing that will do in any fitting is water and freezing and thawing. Each time the cycle happens the center wire gets pushed away just a little until you get a spark plug effect that burns the wire away.

Second most common defect is the little bit of wire debris shorting the cable. Unless you look for it while cutting the fitting you will never find it. Jobs done in the dark suffer from this defect; good fittings used under poor conditions.Joe

This is the issue we have pointed out for years to DirecTV, lack of proper port seals equals GUARANTEED trouble calls. You have it correct to some degree, water penetrating thru the threads is BAD!!! it corrodes the threads isolating ground, creates shorts from the CC (battery) to post (ground), migrates thru the cable into the customer equipment destroying that. frozen in the cable it collapses the dielectric lowering the impedence, I can go on and on about moisture migration being the #1 issue facing DirecTV, even larger than Craft Error! Bottom line, DirecTV should be using port seals, PERIOD.

 

[Joe Diamond]

This is the issue we have pointed out for years to DirecTV, lack of proper port seals equals GUARANTEED trouble calls. You have it correct to some degree, water penetrating thru the threads is BAD!!! it corrodes the threads isolating ground, creates shorts from the CC (battery) to post (ground), migrates thru the cable into the customer equipment destroying that. frozen in the cable it collapses the dielectric lowering the impedence, I can go on and on about moisture migration being the #1 issue facing DirecTV, even larger than Craft Error! Bottom line, DirecTV should be using port seals, PERIOD.

That is another one that gets kicked around.

I like cable grease (dielectric lube) and anything else to the keep the stuff from migrating out.

I like drop boxes and sell them as an upgrade.....customers like there appearance!

The copper wire thing is just a way to allow HSPs to demonstrate their worth and take a little cash from their techs. I have not noticed Directv paying for the SC for contractors.

Joe

 

[Liquidforce88]

I gotta say that the Perfect Vision SC wire is some of the worst junk I have ever used. It is thinner than any other wire so I have to have a Special setup stripper just to strip it. The white part of the cable always sticks to the center conductor so I have to take a pair of cutters and pull it off. The outer jacket is too soft in the summer and way to brittle in the winter. Christ I had the stuff cracking at 15 degrees last winter.

 

[nydiver]

perfect vision from a lab standpoint is some hard to deal with stuff, their manufacturer WAY over uses adhesive on the dielectric, thats due to a high coefficent of expansion in the copper core vs a low coefficent in their chosen dielectric foam, by gluing the heck out of the dielectric to the CC they lessen the differental. it makes the insertion loss high and propogation speed stink, but hey, who cares, its all about price, and cheap is good right? Also their PVC jacket is, as you found out, not forgiving in temp extremes. We have gotten the jacket to actually sag on the cable at the 140 degree exterior extreme, with 1/4 amp load across the span. at -40 after a few cycles it will split, especially if at high temp moisture is present and absorbed into the jacket, but again, that never occurs...

 

[Joe Diamond]

perfect vision from a lab standpoint is some hard to deal with stuff, their manufacturer WAY over uses adhesive on the dielectric, thats due to a high coefficent of expansion in the copper core vs a low coefficent in their chosen dielectric foam, by gluing the heck out of the dielectric to the CC they lessen the differental. it makes the insertion loss high and propogation speed stink, but hey, who cares, its all about price, and cheap is good right? Also their PVC jacket is, as you found out, not forgiving in temp extremes. We have gotten the jacket to actually sag on the cable at the 140 degree exterior extreme, with 1/4 amp load across the span. at -40 after a few cycles it will split, especially if at high temp moisture is present and absorbed into the jacket, but again, that never occurs...

NYDIVER,

You have mentioned the most important part of this question. There is no one quality!
The operative word is acceptable!

Materials are subjected to a specification......all..........ALL ! ... parties are aware of the specifications!

So there is no "best" or "superior"....item......there are just items acceptable to the specification. The customer sets what is wanted...the engineers write a specification to get what the (Directv) customer wants.

Engineers write (compose) what is wanted..............why is it so hard?

Joe

 

[stonecold]

A few comments quickly.
1. CCS has better propagation than solid copper, i.e. for high frequency rf, ccs is a better cable. For power passing CCS sucks and is high resistance as you raise the current flow, hence why DirecTV is lowering the amount of power passed over the wire. Reality going forward is CCS wire is going to take over, cheaper, easier to get, higher quality. No high end cable manufacturer is making SC cable, NONE. SC cable is hard pressed to pass insertion loss specs at 3GHz. Also return loss stinks, not even close to -30 db, where as a POS CCS with no splices in the reel passes with flying colors.

On a side note, Comcast, Cox, TW, Charter, Bresnan, and any other CC doesn't carry on the truck "special" cable to get to the demarc, Times, Comscope, and now PPC do not supply SC aerial messangered or even regular cable. That's simply ridiculous.

2. DirecTV picked PPC for HSP due to quality, ease of stocking only 1 connector, and tech feedback as to ease of use. They were not even close to being the best priced in a reverse auction. So say what you want, DirecTV picked a connector based on what they saw as the most important demographics, not because someone was in bed with them.

Comcast in my area does. I have pictures as proof two box reels ofcable marked.

Also labled on the wire it self. I have Solid copper from the pole and then ccs in to the house from the demarc. It was a new cable run as I did not have comcast in my house for almost 15 years. so all the comcast lines running to my house were cliped an all exisiting jacks being used for Dish, OTA, FTA and direct.