Bulk RG6 vs quad shield RG6 on a long run - I learned the hard way

Last month I ran 250 feet of bulk RG6 to a detached garage, figured it would be fine. Signal was garbage - pixelation on every channel past 60. Swapped it out with quad shield and same length, night and day difference. That extra shielding caught all the interference from the power lines running next to it. Cost me an extra 60 bucks and a whole Saturday to redo it. Has anyone else had a long run fail on basic coax when you least expected it?

3 comments

3 Comments

wyatt_ross279d ago

My buddy Mike ran 200 feet of standard RG6 to his backyard shed last summer and got nothing but static on his local channels. He spent two days troubleshooting before swapping to quad shield and it fixed everything, the interference was coming from an underground power line he didn't even know was there. Said he'll never cheap out on long coax runs again.

anthony1279d ago

Wonder how deep that underground line was buried and if Mike ever tried a ground loop isolator first? I mean RG6 quad shield is definitely better for long runs near power but sometimes even that won't save you if the interference is strong enough. Did he check if his ground block was actually bonded to the house ground or just slapped on there? Seems like a lot of people skip that step and then wonder why they get hum bars or static. Also 200 feet is really pushing the limits of RG6 even with quad shield RG11 would have been the smarter play from the start.

sagey699d ago

Yeah but quad shield isn't really a fix if the original problem was a ground loop, you can stack all the foil and braid you want but it won't break that voltage difference between two buildings. A proper ground loop isolator or even just bonding both ends to the same ground reference would have saved him that two day headache. Did he ever check if his ground block was actually bonded to the house ground or just slapped on there?