I need to attach one coaxial cable jack. I've never done it before but I know the idea. I don't have a crimping tool. Can it be crimped well enough with pliers instead of a proper crimping tool?
- posted
14 years ago
attach a coaxial cable jack
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- posted
14 years ago
If you go to radio shack, they should have screw on coax connectors. You can probably get it to work with a pliers, but it may come apart
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14 years ago
Thanks. When I was in the store I didn't see screw-on ones, but I'll ask.
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14 years ago
no
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- posted
14 years ago
Just about any place that sells coax connectors, including Home Depot and Lowes has screw on connectors.
They'll never be as secure as the crimp on type or as good as the factory made ones that the cable companies supply, but they'll work.
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- posted
14 years ago
Depends on application, and where the cable is. For inside and for OTA TV, damn near anything will work, sort of. For out in the weather, or someplace that is a major pain to get to, or if the cable actually handles power, I'd buy a tool or a new cable. You have any friends into fancy TVs and satt systems? Odds are one of them has a tool. Or go to
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, or Harbor Freight, and look there. Not the best quality stuff, but cheap, and should be good for a few uses. By the way, you want the connectors that go together like a toilet feed line connection, not the ones that crimp on.
Tell us more what this cable is connected to, please.
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- posted
14 years ago
It is an inactive jack in the house. The cable is there but there is no connector on it (and just a blank plate).
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14 years ago
And right now it just carries basic non-digital cable, but that may eventually change.
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14 years ago
The worthless web sites for the borgs don't show it, but I know they all carry low-end crimpers to go with the connectors they sell. They also have expensive 'wanna be' pro-look crimpers, but the real pros get them from the online jobbers they order their cable and connectors from (at half the borg prices.)
It is a good tool to have, along with a few spare connectors and couplers, and some cable. If a mouse chews through the feed just as somebody's chick flick is starting on a Sunday evening, you'll be able to fix it post-haste.
Do you know where the other end of that cable behind the blank cover plate is? Is it connected to anything? Odd to prewire, and not finish out the cable connectors.
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14 years ago
Well, I'm 55 and I've never needed one before.
Yes, it goes up into the attic near the splitter. It has a connector on that end (but isn't in the splitter). The person that built the house was an electrical engineer, and he left the unused phone and cable locations unconnected. He probably knew that he could put on a connector and jack anytime he needed to. I hooked up all of the phone jacks but I've never done a cable jack.
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14 years ago
Is it BNC RG-58?
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14 years ago
No, that is for real radios, and real coax. The ones you want are for type F, either RG-6, or more likely RG-59.
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14 years ago
Okay, understand now. Being an EE, hopefully he used RG-6q, rather than the cheap stuff. Are there other non-connected jacks? If so, may want to do them all and get them over with. If not for you, then for the next owner. Do you have room in on the splitter, or will you need to get a bigger one? It is best to not daisy-chain splitters. If your signal levels are marginal, don't forget to put a terminator on any unused connections.
At least your wire is accessible. I need to upgrade my house antenna wiring, but mine is a major pain to get to.
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14 years ago
You need "F" connectors. It will say on the cable jacket if it's RG-59U, or RG-6. If it was done in the last 20 years it should be 6. Also, every time you split a cable, the signal becomes weaker. For that reason, when we wire cable in new homes, it's typical to only connect the ones being used
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- posted
14 years ago
Only this type of connector, with a separate ferrule (crimp ring), can be secured with pliers.
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With the ferrule over the cable end, slightly crush it, taking care not to deform the connector or cable, and then pinch one of the protruding sides. If you use a round crimping tool for this, there will be 2 pinches, on opposite sides, but when using pliers it's easier to just pinch one side. If you use pliers with a connector having a built-in ferrule, even a short one, including the type designed to break away, most likely the conector will be bent into a saddle, and you won't be able to screw it tight. A hexagonal crimping tool will not work very well with narrow (1/8") ferrules, only with wider ones.
The more common F-connectors have a long built-in ferrule, like this:
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It cannot be secured with pliers but only a hexagonal crimper. Get a tool at least 1/4" wide, similar to the $20 Radio Shack model, not their $10 one. The narrower tool will give poor hex crimps. Most hex crimpers are made for 2 sizes of ferrules, and you need the larger size for these connectors, the smaller size for the connectors having separate ferrules.
Video and TV systems use 75 ohm cable, and RG59 and RG6 cables are 75 ohms. RG58 is 50 ohms and is wrong for TV. Also match the connectors to the type of cable - use RG59 with RG59 cable, RG6 with RG6 cable (there are also RG6QS double-shielded cables and connectors). RG58 connectors are slightly too large for RG59 cable.
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- posted
14 years ago
Just for the record, I gather from the thread that you're actually going to put on a coaxial cable plug (not a jack), and connnect that to a female-to-female (jack-to-jack) connector that is mounted in the wall plate. So the end of it in the room is a jack.
And to avoid confusion down the road, these are also called F-connectors.
And iirc I once tried pliers and it didnt' work well.
They also have screw-on F connectors, and for me they didnt' work too well either, but maybe I didn't do something right.
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- posted
14 years ago
And compression connectors (with the proper tool) are better. You'll need the proper ones for the cable type, RG6 or RG59.
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14 years ago
I think I found the screw on ones at Radio Shack. I've worked in the electronics industry most of my life an I'm picky about things like connectors. The screw on ones I got really work great!
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14 years ago
Yes there are. All bedrooms have one connected and one non-connected jack.
The splitter doesn't have room for all of them. But all of the cables are there, labeled, and there is enough for all we use. It is fairly easy to get to.
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14 years ago
Is one of these the older style? The cable is the older style.