Satellite cable through wall with XS bending

[Steve]

Hi. I want to run some satellite cable (PF100 from TLC) from the outside, through a wall, into the house. The spec' says the cable's minimum bending radius is 60mm.

The cable will be shaped to make a (large radius) drip loop on the wall just before it enters the house.. My problem is how then to get the cable into the wall without bending it at sharp right angle.

The only way I can think of is to cut a deep channel into the wall. The channel would have to have a minimum length and minimum depth of 60mm+plus the radius or diameter of the cable - so about 70mm long and 70mm deep at least..

The cable would enter on one side of the channel, parallel to the wall, bend

90deg in the channel and leave the channel perpendicular to the wall. (Fortunately the cable will then be under the floorboards, so its direction on exit doesn't matter.)

Does anyone know of other ways of getting the cable through while not overbending?

Cheers

Steve

[Andy Burns]

Drill the hole at an angle (sloping down to the outside unless you like damp carpet).

[Steve]

Thanks Andy, but even, say, a 45deg angle would give a sharp-ish kink wouldn't it? I've read that tight bends and kinks must be avoided as they can cause a signal reflection which reduces the signal passed to the receiver.

However, you've given me an idea for improving my 'slot approach'- the slot can be shallow at one end and deep at the other, which saves drilling/chiselling.

Cheers

[Appelation Controlee]

-------------------8><

I took the cable through an airbrick below floor level, then up through the floor into the lounge (which is presumably similar to your intention). The radius of the bend where the cable enters the house is taken care of by allowing the cable to loop away from the wall immediately before passing through the aperture. That might be a bit of a vulnerability in some situations, but not in ours.

[Steve]

Thanks. Unfortunately I'd be uncomfortable allowing the cable to loop away from the wall because the area is accessible (eg kids) and I don't want to create a hazard.

[pete]

If you bring the cable down about a foot from the hole, then loop the cable around to enter the hole, the radius will be quite large so you shouldn't have any problems with kinks etc. Same if you want a cable to go around a 90degree corner: start a loop a distance out, then ust "twist" it around the corner and straighten up the loop on the other side.

There's also a lot of myths and legends about satellite cable. Unless you have a marginal signal, a dB or two loss from sharp bends (even if a bend

*does* produce a measurable drop, anyone actually measured it?) probably won't hurt the reception.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Steve expressed precisely :

Go down, back up and allow it to come out away from the wall to form some of the radius plus a small amount as it enters the hole in the wall. Another way would be to make the hole in the horizontal brick seam, but with a vertical seam directly below the hole - so you can chase out some of the mortar in the vertical seam, always supposing the mortar seams are wide enough for the cable.

[RobertL]

You could mount a little box over it.

Robert

[Rod]

A while ago we tried a Freeview aerial (it was fitted then removed, without payment, as it did not work well enough). The satellite cable they used was left behind. What had been pushed through the wall was dreadfully damage by its treatment. The copper sheath was severely cracked. Can't prove it was done by bending through the wall (though that was too tight a radius), but I saw brand new cable coming off the reel and saw nothing else that I could blame.

(Yes - it really was brand new from the reel. They left that as well. That cable was in perfect condition.)

So I too was wondering how to get a cable through without damage - either at time of fitting or afterwards. Decided the only answer was the type of thing you are talking about.

[Paul Matthews]

If you drill inside outwards, the blowout should smooth the radius as well.

P.

[Steve]

Good idea Paul. Also, I could deliberately enlarge the blowout a bit to provide a more turning space.

[Michael Chare]

You can get away with bending the cable more tightly than that. I have a loop inside a normal square electical metal countersuck wall box.

You could use a rounded piece of wood on the outside of the wall if you are that concerned. Also try uk.tech.digital-tv

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Rod saying something like:

Pex pipe.

[Steve]

Thanks everyone. I've ended up using a deep-ish slot leading to an upwardly sloping hole. Cheers.