What's the frigging secret of making your own coax cable that won't be noisy?

[StormRider]

I bought 50 feet of RG6 coax cable to make my own because the set sizes are either too long or too short but everytime I make a set (by stripping the outer layer and putting on a F-plug at the end) and plug it in, I notice the picture is more noisy. I was hoping that the picture would improve because I'm using the thicker RG6. There is an inner silver lining for shielding and I try to make sure that it doesn't touch the ground. Or is it supposed to touch the ground?

 

[richardycc]

did you use a coax cable stripper?

 

[Ameesh]

You are not stripping the cable write or your crimps are too weak, i ran 10 taps of rg6 all through out my house and i have great picture everywhere.

 

[StormRider]

Yes, I used one that I bought from Radio Shack.

It leaves the shielding conductor intact. And then I manually strip that away to the white inner insulator.

----------
|
--------------
|
|
-------------
-------------
|
_________|
______|

Originally posted by: richardycc
did you use a coax cable stripper?

 

[aircooled]

Hows the picture at the main run? before you judge your own wiring, see how it is straight from the main line at your box.

 

[StormRider]

I think it's my wiring because I replaced a store pre-made one (that was a little too long) with the one I made and the picture got worse.

Originally posted by: aircooled
Hows the picture at the main run? before you judge your own wiring, see how it is straight from the main line at your box.

 

[richardycc]

if you are using a correct coax cable stripper, you shouldn't have to manually strip anything off. You dont and shouldn't cut off those shielding outer wiring mesh thingy, they are acting as "ground" too and need to be in contact with the outer part of the connector. just bend them back and attach the connector.

 

[RossGr]

There is an inner silver lining for shielding and I try to make sure that it doesn't touch the ground. Or is it supposed to touch the ground?

This is your trouble. The shield NEEDS to be grounded. The better the ground contact the better.

 

[StormRider]

Ok, thanks guys. I redid the end and I didn't do anything extra with the outer silver shielding mesh. I just let the Coax stripper do it's thing and I connected the F-plug. The picture is vastly improved (as good as the store pre-made cable -- maybe better).

 

[StormRider]

What's confusing is that I thought I tried this before and it didn't improve anything. Oh well, I guess it's better just to let things be.

Originally posted by: StormRider
Ok, thanks guys. I redid the end and I didn't do anything extra with the outer silver shielding mesh. I just let the Coax stripper do it's thing and I connected the F-plug. The picture is vastly improved (as good as the store pre-made cable -- maybe better).

 

[EngenZerO]

strip the wire correctly(buy the tool) and buy the twist on crimps.

 

[element]

Sometimes you have to ground only 1 end. Sometimes both, in order to avoid a ground loop effect, or antenna effect. Essentially the shield becomes an antenna and picks up noise. If you have problems try different combinations of grounding 1 end or the other and try both.

A couple of rules of wiring that work for most ground loop noise:

The shield should be tied to a single point to prevent ground loops.
A second shield can be used over the primary shield, however the second shield is tied to ground at both ends.