\"Flexible\" redundancy...

On 10/30/2020 1:45 PM, Michael Terrell wrote:
On Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 11:25:40 PM UTC-4, Don Y wrote:
I could hack together such a beast -- M-F 90 feeding a F-F. But, that
just seems like a boatload of connections to worry about loosening as the
cable is flexed, potential impedance bumps, etc.

Use a wrench to tighten them. They won\'t come loose. I don\'t remember the
torque spec for F connectors, but there were small \'click type\' torque
wrenches made for this task.

OK. I\'ve typically just tightened them enough to \"not be loose\" (as they
tend not to see any physical abuse).

I preferred doing it on 1/2\" plywood. Wire it all up, then screw it to
the wall. That way if you make major changes, you build a new one, and
replace the old without worry about too many holes in the wall. Some
furring strips down the two sides let you hide a lot of cable behind the
plywood. Jerrold used to make wall mounted cabinets for this, but they
were $300 in the early \'70s.

I\'m severely constrained on space and volume. And, \"appearance\" lest my
other half give me The Eye... Hence the need for a really tight placement
and routing of the components involved. I have two other beta sites that
are commercial so I can be more luxurious in those installations (here,
I\'m trying to shoehorn things into pantries, walls, etc. to keep them out
of sight)

Mount it to the ceiling in a pantry?

Hah! Shirley you jest!

Ceilings of the pantry, cupboard, hall closet have all been claimed.

The lowest foot of the cupboard has been commandeered as has the lowest
TWO feet of the pantry.

I\'ve located my distribution amp *above* the ceiling, adjacent to
the front door (this space has to be accessed from outside the house).

Walls in furnace room are covered with bits of kit.

The garage is littered with stuff on walls and affixed to ceiling.
I\'ll be mounting a track for an \"architectural floodlight\" in
the garage later this week so I can tweek the position later.
Big. Heavy.
<https://www.lumenpulse.com/products/1385/lumenbeam-grande-color-changing>

[I just love toys! Especially when they\'re free! :> ]

All of this is tastefully done; it doesn\'t look like a hobbyist\'s
tinkering. E.g., custom stainless steel enclosures for any electronics,
molded enclosures for appliances, recessed speakers, etc.

The closets in the bedrooms are available -- but, are off the beaten
track.

If the cable is reasonably flexible, I could route/laser-cut channels in
some lexan block and lay the cables in those, fasten a sheet of Lexan on
top and its a nice impervious block. Bolt the block directly to the wall
and just worry about the connections on each end being accessible (with a
tiny bit of flex to act as service loop)

I would use a piece of Luann plywood, so it hides the hardware.

I was going to mount to the wall (the \"lowest two feet of the pantry\").
There\'s a bunch of other kit that needs to hide there, as well
(cable modem, DSL modem, PSTN interface, etc.)

The electronics need to breathe as these things draw a fair bit of power
and are in a closed space with no practical ventilation (I may add a low
CFM fan to vent through the door if temperature rise becomes a problem)

I\'ve also considered on the walls *near* the ceiling in the laundry
room. But, that would be a bit of an eyesore. I\'ve tried to hide
everything so the house doesn\'t look like a \"lab\".

Thanks! I\'ll start looking for cable. Any keywords I should use in a
search? Or, do I need to actually play touch-feely to determine amount of
flex?

Name brands are made with more plasticizer. The softest RG59 uses a layer of
foil and one braid. My preference was always Belden. The absolute worst was

OK, as long as it\'s not some \"specialty\" item, I\'ll just go with Belden.
I\'ve a spool of Belden RG58U but wrong impedance.

made by \'Jeresy Specialty\' It was stiff on the spool, and quickly outgassed
the plasticizer to the point that the jacket would crack if you bent it.
Radio Shack wasn\'t much better. Some looked like less than 50% braid. The
most common these days is \'Quad Shield\', and it is stiff. That is two layers
of foil, and two layers of braid. The two types of cable use different
connectors, as well. I don\'t know what brand the sell at HD or Lowes these
days, but you can buy it by the foot and you can handle it before buying .

I\'ll only need a dozen feet (including waste) so I\'m sure I can find what I
need. And, already have the crimping tool and connectors...

Thanks!
 
On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 6:59:45 PM UTC-4, Don Y wrote:
I\'ll only need a dozen feet (including waste) so I\'m sure I can find what I
need. And, already have the crimping tool and connectors...

Thanks!

I would send you some, but what little I have left is 35 years old. Fresh cable is much softer. If you don\'t have the little torque wrench, the rule of thumb was 1/8 turn, after finger tight for indoors. Outdoors sometimes took a little bit more, and they were often filled with a little silicone grease to keep the treads from corroding. We also used the Raychem self shrinking tubing for outside connectors. They came two to a pouch, in a liquid chemical. As it evaporated, it shrank by 50%. They were used, rather than risk burn marks on a wall where a splitter was installed, and we used them at the taps.
 
On 10/31/2020 2:14 PM, Michael Terrell wrote:
On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 6:59:45 PM UTC-4, Don Y wrote:

I\'ll only need a dozen feet (including waste) so I\'m sure I can find what
I need. And, already have the crimping tool and connectors...

Thanks!

I would send you some, but what little I have left is 35 years old. Fresh
cable is much softer.

Thanks, but its not a problem. I just didn\'t want to find myself ordering
a spool of XXX, online... waiting for it to arrive and then discovering it
wasn\'t flexible enough, returning it and trying again.

If you claim Belden is \"good\", that would have been my go-to choice otherwise.
(As I said, I just don\'t want to discover it\'s some \"special\" variant that
you need to know the magic keywords to order properly)

If you don\'t have the little torque wrench, the rule
of thumb was 1/8 turn, after finger tight for indoors.

I always used one of those rubber grippers you\'d used for opening jars
and VERY tightly \"finger tight\". For cables that aren\'t aggressively jostled,
it works good. But, when the total length of the cable is just a foot or
less, any motion on the cable is directly coupled to the connection...

Outdoors sometimes
took a little bit more, and they were often filled with a little silicone
grease to keep the treads from corroding. We also used the Raychem self
shrinking tubing for outside connectors. They came two to a pouch, in a
liquid chemical. As it evaporated, it shrank by 50%. They were used, rather
than risk burn marks on a wall where a splitter was installed, and we used
them at the taps.

I only have three outdoor connections -- two for CATV drops (but they are in
a housing) and another for rooftop antenna (has a rubber boot). Other antennae
are \"sheltered\".
 
On Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 5:44:58 PM UTC-4, Don Y wrote:
On 10/31/2020 2:14 PM, Michael Terrell wrote:
On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 6:59:45 PM UTC-4, Don Y wrote:

I\'ll only need a dozen feet (including waste) so I\'m sure I can find what
I need. And, already have the crimping tool and connectors...

Thanks!

I would send you some, but what little I have left is 35 years old. Fresh
cable is much softer.
Thanks, but its not a problem. I just didn\'t want to find myself ordering
a spool of XXX, online... waiting for it to arrive and then discovering it
wasn\'t flexible enough, returning it and trying again.

Just go to a big box and buy 15 to 25 feet. Then you don\'t have to wait. I just checked the RG59 used by the Hughesnet satellite installer. It is made by Southwire, and it is fairly stiff. I would look at the OEM website to see the reccomended bending radius is, if you want to compare brands or series of Coax. I used to get 50,000 feet at a time, for our installers. We used regular, and figure eight which has a built in stainless steel messenger for self supporting drops. That was why I started taking hme the leftover scraps. I needed the steel wire for a project. The manager came in one day and told me to take the regular scrap boxes to the dumpster. M van was by the back door. The dumpster was 500 feet away. I just tossed it into the van. I had been cutting it into 3\' lengths and leaving bundles of 25 for the contract installers to make jumpers out of.

If you claim Belden is \"good\", that would have been my go-to choice otherwise.
(As I said, I just don\'t want to discover it\'s some \"special\" variant that
you need to know the magic keywords to order properly)
If you don\'t have the little torque wrench, the rule
of thumb was 1/8 turn, after finger tight for indoors.
I always used one of those rubber grippers you\'d used for opening jars
and VERY tightly \"finger tight\". For cables that aren\'t aggressively jostled,
it works good. But, when the total length of the cable is just a foot or
less, any motion on the cable is directly coupled to the connection...

That would work in a headend. Hundreds of connectors, each leaking a little signal. This creates intermod, and even unstable signal levels. If one of the pilot channels is unstable, the entire system goes screwy. Some idiots put OTA channels on the pilot channels. They quickly learned their mistake when the transmitter dropped out, and sending that end of the band to maximum gain at every trunk amplifier. You end up with +10 dBmv of static instead of the desired RF. Early systems used the Ch2 and Ch12 video carrier for their pilots.

Outdoors sometimes
took a little bit more, and they were often filled with a little silicone
grease to keep the treads from corroding. We also used the Raychem self
shrinking tubing for outside connectors. They came two to a pouch, in a
liquid chemical. As it evaporated, it shrank by 50%. They were used, rather
than risk burn marks on a wall where a splitter was installed, and we used
them at the taps.
I only have three outdoor connections -- two for CATV drops (but they are in
a housing) and another for rooftop antenna (has a rubber boot). Other antennae
are \"sheltered\".

We used to fill those boots with silicone grease, since the dried out and cracked with age.

Have fun!
 
On 10/31/2020 8:17 PM, Michael Terrell wrote:
On Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 5:44:58 PM UTC-4, Don Y wrote:
On 10/31/2020 2:14 PM, Michael Terrell wrote:
On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 6:59:45 PM UTC-4, Don Y wrote:

I\'ll only need a dozen feet (including waste) so I\'m sure I can find
what I need. And, already have the crimping tool and connectors...

Thanks!

I would send you some, but what little I have left is 35 years old.
Fresh cable is much softer.
Thanks, but its not a problem. I just didn\'t want to find myself ordering
a spool of XXX, online... waiting for it to arrive and then discovering
it wasn\'t flexible enough, returning it and trying again.

Just go to a big box and buy 15 to 25 feet. Then you don\'t have to wait. I

I\'m not in a hurry. I\'ll have to draw up a template of how the wires
will need to be routed, etc. But, knowing that I can get tighter bends
will change that.

just checked the RG59 used by the Hughesnet satellite installer. It is made
by Southwire, and it is fairly stiff. I would look at the OEM website to see
the reccomended bending radius is, if you want to compare brands or series

I did a quick search and see figures down to ~1\" -- though many are in the
2\" ballpark. I\'ll make some time for a more detailed search.

And, I\'ll check HD & Lowes on my next visits, just to get a \"feel\" for what
they have on hand.

of Coax. I used to get 50,000 feet at a time, for our installers. We used
regular, and figure eight which has a built in stainless steel messenger for

Yeah, I had two 50 (?) ft lengths of that which already had connectors affixed.
I used these as travellers between the equipment closet and the distribution
panel (located in the ceiling-space)

self supporting drops. That was why I started taking hme the leftover
scraps. I needed the steel wire for a project. The manager came in one day
and told me to take the regular scrap boxes to the dumpster. M van was by
the back door. The dumpster was 500 feet away. I just tossed it into the
van. I had been cutting it into 3\' lengths and leaving bundles of 25 for the
contract installers to make jumpers out of.

I\'ll also look for a little wrench (other than just a generic open-end)
that I can keep with my connector crimp kit.

Outdoors sometimes took a little bit more, and they were often filled
with a little silicone grease to keep the treads from corroding. We also
used the Raychem self shrinking tubing for outside connectors. They came
two to a pouch, in a liquid chemical. As it evaporated, it shrank by
50%. They were used, rather than risk burn marks on a wall where a
splitter was installed, and we used them at the taps.
I only have three outdoor connections -- two for CATV drops (but they are
in a housing) and another for rooftop antenna (has a rubber boot). Other
antennae are \"sheltered\".

We used to fill those boots with silicone grease, since the dried out and
cracked with age.

I deal with outdoor connections similarly (silicone CAULK, though). E.g., for
below grade splices, I make the splice in a \"pill bottle\" and then fill the
bottle with silicone caulk. In the unlikely event that I have to service the
splice in the future, I just cut away all the crud until the wire can be pulled
from the blob.

> Have fun!

Fun isn\'t the word I\'d choose. But, at least it\'s cooling down enough
that I can tolerate working with my head in that ceiling space!
 

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