Is cable TV wire good for anything other than cable TV?

[gary350]

Cable TV man gave me this 288 ft roll of wire 3 years ago. Center wire is copper coated steel. Magnet sticks to the center wire. Numbers on the side of wire are almost faded away. .

 

[Ramussons]

You can use it for LAN networking with the appropriate terminals.

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[vishvajit]

those are called co-axial cables ,you can using it as rope, for drying clothes outdoors, for tying something,
Coaxial cable is often used for other forms of signal transmission, such as:

• Internet: Coaxial cable can be used to provide high-speed internet service through a cable modem.
• Surveillance systems: Coaxial cable is often used to transmit video signals from surveillance cameras to a monitor or recording device.
• Radio: Coaxial cable is used to connect antennas to receivers in radio communication systems.
• Data transmission: Coaxial cable is used in some types of data transmission systems, such as 10Base2 Ethernet and Thinnet.

It's important to note that, while coaxial cable can be used for these other applications, it may not be the best option depending on the specific requirements of the application. For example, Ethernet networks typically use twisted pair cable and not Coaxial cable.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

For example, Ethernet networks typically use twisted pair cable and not Coaxial cable.

Perhaps you're too young

Coaxial cable used to be commonly used for networks, it used BNC plugs, and t-connectors at each PC, with 75 ohm terminating loads at either end.

Ah - the days of playing network Doom over coax with my daughter, on 386's using DOS (pre-Windows)

 

[gary350]

Copper coated steel wire reminds me of the time 50 years ago 1969 when the Railroad took down all the wires running parallel to the railroad tracks for a 100 miles. I got about 600 feet of that free wire to run 120 VAC from the house to my fathers barn. I ran 2 wire from the house 250 feet to the barn light bulbs light up a very dull orange color, they did not make enough light to see anything. Wire was worthless. I replaced the wire with copper Romex then light bulbs were bright and made lots of light. The steel wire was used to make fences. I expect copper coated steel coax wire is worthless too. I hate to put more trash in the land fill, maybe someone on market place will have a use for free wire.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Copper coated steel wire reminds me of the time 50 years ago 1969 when the Railroad took down all the wires running parallel to the railroad tracks for a 100 miles. I got about 600 feet of that free wire to run 120 VAC from the house to my fathers barn. I ran 2 wire from the house 250 feet to the barn light bulbs light up a very dull orange color, they did not make enough light to see anything. Wire was worthless. I replaced the wire with copper Romex then light bulbs were bright and made lots of light. The steel wire was used to make fences. I expect copper coated steel coax wire is worthless too. I hate to put more trash in the land fill, maybe someone on market place will have a use for free wire.

You're just confusing yourself - it's NOT for doing mains wiring, it's for low level RF signals - so there's little current flow anyway, and due to skin effect (at the high frequencies used) the signal will be carried down the copper coating.

Likewise the railway wire - presumably it was low current signalling wire?, and not for mains distribution.

 

[gary350]

You're just confusing yourself - it's NOT for doing mains wiring, it's for low level RF signals - so there's little current flow anyway, and due to skin effect (at the high frequencies used) the signal will be carried down the copper coating.

Likewise the railway wire - presumably it was low current signalling wire?, and not for mains distribution.

Will it work good of a TV antenna? People on the TV antenna forum said, NO.

 

[gary350]

Will it work good of a TV antenna? People on the TV antenna forum said, NO.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Will it work good of a TV antenna? People on the TV antenna forum said, NO.

It depends on it's specification - for a start, is it 75 ohm or 50 ohm?.

However, as it's intended for use at relatively high signal levels, then it's probably not particularly low loss coax?.

You could always try it and see if it makes any difference?.

 

[AnalogKid]

is it 75 ohm or 50 ohm?.

Cable TV in the US - almost certainly 75 ohm. That cable looks fatter than standard RG59- or RG6-ish cables, so probably a low-loss type.

ak

 

[gary350]

Cable TV in the US - almost certainly 75 ohm. That cable looks fatter than standard RG59- or RG6-ish cables, so probably a low-loss type.

ak

Cable is fat cable, white color insulation is very thick plastic. Most of our TV transmitters have been moved to a small mountain 1500 ft elevation east of Nashville TN. Channel 5 is the hardest channel to receive but reception is excellent for me most of the time. Channel 5 reception 3 days ago was bad we had 40 mph wind all day but I very seldom watch TV during the day and not much in evening either. Wind stopped about 6 pm channel 5 receipt was good again. I have noticed high wind blows TV signal east about 15 degrees if I rotate antenna 15 degrees reception is good in 40 mph wind. My antennas are both 75 ohms.

I cut several feet of the cable off then removed the insulation the aluminum foil inside has oxidized to powder. Braided wires are covered with white oxidation powder. Metal wires are white color too. I did manage to get connectors on 1 coax 40 ft long, I need to test it to see if it works better than RG6 that I have.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Cable TV in the US - almost certainly 75 ohm. That cable looks fatter than standard RG59- or RG6-ish cables, so probably a low-loss type.

ak

I presumed that it's 'mildly armoured' cable for going underground?, hence it's greater girth.

Back when we used to run a couple of small relay systems the cable was about as thick as your thumb, but was all copper, no steel or aluminium, the outer sheaving was substantial thick stiff plastic - it was also only rated for VHF use, and was utterly useless at UHF (the relay system was VHF only).

 

[Pommie]

Coaxial cable used to be commonly used for networks, it used BNC plugs, and t-connectors at each PC, with 75 ohm terminating loads at either end.

Remember it well. All was good until someone moved their computer and just disconnected the network cable or a dodgy connection somewhere. Reliability greatly increased with twisted pair and hubs.

Ah - the days of playing network Doom over coax with my daughter, on 386's using DOS (pre-Windows)

We did the same in the office, people stayed late just to play Doom. It was the first time I'd seen someone panic on screen.

Mike.

 

[gary350]

There is nothing wrong with this steel copper coated coax cable. I replaced my very old coax cable. I also cut coax to the correct length. 1 coax is 11 feet shorter the other coax is 6 feet shorter. I rescanned and picked 1 new channel. @#$% I can't remember correct name for the meter??? Power meter reads 97 on all 74 channels. Some times channel 2 changes to 96 for a few seconds then returns to 97. LOL. This is great. I should have tested this coax years ago.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Is 'T' a splitter/combiner, or a UHF/VHF diplexer? - a splitter makes a loss when you use it to join two aerials together, a diplexer makes far less loss as it's just two (simple) filters.

 

[Pommie]

How do you cut any cable shorter and it still fits?

Mike.
Devils advocate.

 

[gary350]

How do you cut any cable shorter and it still fits?

Mike.
Devils advocate.

My old coax was factory made and several feet too long. Walmart and Ebay sell coax is lengths of 10ft, 25ft 50ft. If you need 30ft and buy 50ft then you have 20ft extra laying in the yard. My new coax are cut to fit the correct length. Buy connectors so you can cut coax to correct length.

After I made my own coax to exact length, I used ohm meter to test them. Center wire is .001 ohms. Shield is .001 ohms.

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[shortbus=]

You don't think you could have used those connectors on the wire you already had, to shorten them?

 

[gary350]

You don't think you could have used those connectors on the wire you already had, to shorten them?

Fittings are too large for black coax and almost too small for white coax. Fitting screw on the black coax so easy fittings fall off easy. Fittings are hard to screw on the white color cable TV coax, it was a struggle to force the fitting on with plyers. Black coax has been around so long I don't remember where it came from.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Fittings are too large for black coax and almost too small for white coax. Fitting screw on the black coax so easy fittings fall off easy. Fittings are hard to screw on the white color cable TV coax, it was a struggle to force the fitting on with plyers. Black coax has been around so long I don't remember where it came from.

There are a goodly number of different sized F-connectors, you need to buy the correct ones for the cable you have - the right size ones are probably better than crimp-on ones (which also come in different sizes as well).