catv double cable

[Kitep]

Ok, I hope I can explain this clearly. The cable tv company has a cable coming to my house and going under my porch. There it hits a cable splitter with 2 lines going to 2 different rooms. The cable coming in is a single "strand". One of the room lines is also a single "strand". The other is a double "strand", but only 1 strand is connected to the splitter. I imagine this is leftover from when cable boxes had A/B knobs. In the room, both strands come out of the wall, but only 1 has a proper connector on it, the other strand is just cut.

Will the 1 "strand" work like a single cable, or will it need to be replaced?

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, What do you mean by strand? Coax has outer shield and center conductor which could be solid single wire or multi-strand wire(think skin effect).

[mm]

Does your tv receive programs? Programs above channel 13? If so, it works. :)

Also, iiuyc, the cable guy wouldn't have left it this way if he didn't think it would work. And if the same strand is connected to the splitter as is connected to the tv, that should be fine

[digitalmaster]

Is the "second strand" on the outside of coax?If it is it is a ground wire and is not really necessary unless you are hooking up something than needs a ground.It is mostly used to go to satellite dishes.

[Bud--]

I agree.

2 "strands" are just 2 separate coax cables joined together for convenience when both an "A" and a "B" cable were used.

-- bud--

[Mark Lloyd]

According to the original post, "strand" isn't referring to stranded wire (all the TV RF coax I've seen has had solid wire) but dual coax (2 coax cables with the outer jackets connected, like zip cord).

[Mark Lloyd]

I think they call that extra wire (not coax itself) a "messenger wire". The first time I saw one it was being used to ground a satellite dish. A cable installer told me it was usually used to physically support overhead cables rather than for any electrical purpose. Since the OP mentioned dual cables, I expect the "strand" he referred to was not that, but a second coax (with independent shielding).

[DerbyDad03]

You mean something like this?

[Kitep]

It's like 2 coax cables connected together. They can easily be pulled apart, like pulling apart Twizzlers licorice.

[Kitep]

No, it looks like 2 coax cables stuck together. Though come to think of it, I have seen this same stuff on a satellite dish before (a big 6' dish, not the small ones they use now)

[Kitep]

YES!!! Now that I know it's call dual coax, I'm able to google it. That's what it is. Thanks. I truly appreciate it.

[Kitep]

Yep. That's it. Thanks.

[Mark Lloyd]

The first time I saw dual coax, was with satellite internet. That setup used separate transmit and receive cables. Dual coax is also common with mini-dish satellite TV (where you need separate cables for each polarization).