hi, i am bulding a new house and have run the main feed using rj11 coax cable. basically for those who don't already know, rj11 is very similar to rg6, only it is much thicker and used for very long runs (by cable companies for new subdivisions). in any case, when i pulled the coax there was a kink in it that im afraid may have damaged the cable. is there any way i can test it out to see if it is okay, other than sticking a tv to it? (the cable company has not turned my account on yet so i can't even if i wanted to test it that way). any help is greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.


anthony a.

A severe kink will crush the dielectric. At RF frequencies this will create reflections associated wth a high VSWR. Your cable may still work with these reflections but will detract from any original benifit of using RG11 in the first place. Only a sweep test using a scaler or vector network analyzer can tell you the degree of damage.

hmm, i searched out "vector network analyzer" on google and ebay and it seems that this unit costs in the thousands. is there any hand held device that is cheaper, or any other simple test that won't break the bank?

No, there isn't. You could test for continuity and make sure the wire isn't broken/shorted, but it won't help determine if you have a high VSWR.

okay in that case, the other only viable option i can think of (unless someone knows something better) would be to cut the wire before the kink, add a coupler and then another piece of fresh coax. is this a bad idea? the total run of the rg11 is about 200 feet, only the last 12' is where there is the kink, so the coupler would be around the 12' mark. will this idea cut down/degrade the signal in any way?

Call the cable company and see if they have someone in the area that can run by. They probably have the tools to do this. If your building a new house, you want to get it right!

i've just been reading some info and based on how the kink is in my setup, i can only assume its damaged. the info i've searched shows kinks in similar setups (that look like mine) and resulted in almost 2db loss of signal. so assuming that mu cable is damaged, what are my best options? like i stated earlier, the kink is about 12 feet from my panel. if the coupler is a bad idea, perhaps adding a splitter at that location instead?

the best 2 optins i came up with are this:

1.) use a 2 way splitter at this point (main feed for internet, main feed for tv) and make an access hole in the ceiling if i ever need for service.
2.) have an exterior access box where i will have the coax grounding block

does anyone know if it is building code to have an exterior access box for cable and telephone (i think i remember reading that phone/cable companies require this if they are to do any work in the future). anyone know?

can any qualified techs help me out on the issue of whether or not its code requirement to have an exterior box setup?

No doubt you only pulled RG-11 from the street, to your house interface location on the side of your home? I can't imagine trying to pull that stuff through a residental structure.
The problem with thinking of any kind of splice is you will need to have a yard box installed so you can access that splice in the future should you have problems and it need to be redone. May not work out well with your landscaping plans. It will be below grade and need direct burrial grade splice / terminations done. Hopefully your not in a rush to get the trench filled and can get the cable company out to test the cable for you. When you contact them just inform you of the situation and that you would much rather be a cable customer than a Direct TV / Dish Network customer.