TV cabling question: wire for underground cable (RG-6, 11 or 60)?

[ieoeja]

Telephone, cable and electricity come off the same pole

The pole in the alley behind my house not only houses a transformer, it also supports the hub for telephone service for a ?? block radius. Plus the cable company splits off their line from there.

And all three utilities insist on running their wires through the tree in my backyard to the same corner. Between the tree fraying wires and the wires wrapping around one another ... I have become quite the expert at separating these wires (preferably while intoxicated and standing in a well-grounded pool of water and using a pole made out of copper piping and wearing one of these :tinfoilhat:).

When I replaced the garage I had an electrician run rigid steel conduit underground, two from the house to the garage and two from a point outside the garage near that utility pole. So I have two unused 1.25" (too small for electric; sigh) conduits sticking up out of the ground by the utility pole.

A couple weeks ago my cable started acting up again. So this would seem like a good time to make use of that conduit. But I don't know what wire to run underground?

Found the following on Wikipedia:

RG-6 used for cable TV (and this is what the cable company has run from the pole to the house).

RG-11 used for longdrops and "underground conduit". Same impedance (75 ohms). Much larger in diameter. Appears to be unshielded! Will there be a connection issue with the RG-6?

RG-60 used for high-def and high-speed internet. I have neither at the moment, but should plan for the future. Even slightly larger overall diameter than RG-11. And impedance is less (50 ohms) which makes me wonder if standard TV will work.


Suggestions from the technologist crowd? I've found this site better than the pros I know when it comes to difficult technology questions (they just want do whatever is standard which, in this case, means securing it to a tree branch away from the other wires using an insulater to keep it from fraying).

[pokerfan]

1. RG11 with a flooded polyethylene jacket

RG11 is more expensive than RG6 but it also has much less attenuation. It's not as flexible but that's not much of an issue since you're burying it.

[conscious evolution]

2. I have to agree.

I would also consider running a Cat-6 cable for phone/data with it.Your conduit is big enough for both cables with room left over.

[ieoeja]

4. I was kicking myself for forgetting to add that to the question.

In fact, the only reason I logged in tonight was to re-kick this thread while asking someone, "would running a telephone wire parallel to the cable in the same conduit cause interface, and if not, then what CAT should I run?"

Unless someone else chimes in it sounds like RG-11 and CAT-6 in the same underground conduit is okay. I know from experience (which verified in practice what I learned in theory 30 years ago in college; why, yes, I am OLD; thank you for asking) that I can not run a telecom wire in parallel more than a few inches before interference cuts in horribly; ditto, coaxial more than a few feet). I have been told before that cable and telephone will not intefere with one another. But if someone reading this has practical experience in a long, parallel run, I would feel much better about running them both in the same conduit.

Because there are the *two* conduits. I prefer keeping the second conduit open for possibly running undergound the electric in a theoretical future (my gods! we liberals are too nuanced!). Electricians I had replace the service panels this winter (in case you have not figured it out yet, my entire house is in flux right now) did not say the electric could not use that conduit, they just recommended against it because of the cost.


Further to the RG-11, the connector obviously is larger on the wire-side ... but on the opposite side, is it the same F-connector as the RG-6? Or do I have to worry about a special adapter to switch from an RG-11 outside to an RG-6 inside the house?

[conscious evolution]

5. Intereference should not be a problem

with coax and CAT cables as both are usually shielded.
Interference usually is a problem when low voltage comm cables are run within six inches of high voltage line power cables.Especially with high voltage that has electric motor circuits.Unfortunately,most houses have several motors in equipment like AC/heat ahu's.refridgerators,jacuzzis and pools.
Are both conduits PVC together side by side in the trench?If so there is a possibility that the high voltage line may cause interference.If there is even a few inches of seperation it most likely will not be a problem as the earthen backfill will also act as a shield.


After thinking about it,I also have to recommend going with the RG-6 if the run is less than 250'.My experience with RG-11 is that it is normally only used when a; there is an extremely long run where voltage drop is a consideration and b; circuits that have a lot of branches such as would be the case in a school or large office enviroment.

[ieoeja]

3. Thank you!

I did more reading after posting this. And that fits everything I read. Now the problem is, where do I find the RG11!

The answer to that appears to be: hire someone who does this and let them do it. All the RG11 I have found online is bulk sales. And I don't need 1000 ft!

Some of what I read suggests that RG11 is becoming pretty commonplace for the high-speed internet wiring. So maybe my solution is "wait a couple more years". My mortgage is going to be paid off in a year and a half if nothing disastrous happens (or I get crazy**). For which reason I have been putting off almost everything else.

Yeah, yeah, "crazier". Whatever.



Turns out over 50% of my current mortgage goes to property tax and insurance. So it will not be as liberating as I thought it would be. That's what happens when you live in a state with the 42nd lowest state income tax in the nation. You get taxed on what you own or buy instead of on what money you actually fucking have available to pay your taxes. What kind of insane logic makes people want to be taxed, not on their ability to pay the tax, but on something that may make it *impossible* to pay their taxes?!?!?!

Republicans used to claim that, "a Democrat never met a tax he didn't like." A more accurate quote would be, "a Democrat never met a tax he *did* like except for income tax while a Republic never met a tax he did *not* like *except* the income tax." During a quarter century in the work-force, I have lived through over NINE federal income tax decreases with ZERO federal income tax increases. While getting hit with uncounted sales and property tax increases to make up for those federal income tax decreases. Yet, it is the federal income taxes that the fucking teabaggers went out to protest!

And how the fuck do we not win 100% of every fucking election, every fucking place to the party advocating that you be taxed on the thing you are least likely to be able pay?

Okay. I am drunk posting at this time (hence all the "fucking"). But thanks for your info!


You know, the more I (drunkenly) think about this, the more SOCIALIST the Republican view of this becomes. Think about it (drunk man posting; oh, no, reading this tomorrow will not be embarassing at all). If we tax wealth instead of income, we end up "redistributing" that wealth/property instead of "redistributing" income.

For that matter, the self proclaimed socialists/greens on DU very, very, very frequently advocate taxing wealth (+ income). So I guess they are the middle ground.

Dem - tax income
Rep - tax wealth (lower and middle class)
Soc - tax income and wealth (lower, middle, and upper)

Does that make Socialism the "compromise"? Or to really yank people's chains, does that make Socialism the "centrist" position?!?