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PSA: The difference in signal loss between cheap RG59 and proper RG6 after 5 years in a Phoenix attic
I pulled out some old RG59 I installed back in 2019 during a service call last week and the signal loss was almost 6 dB worse than the RG6 I put in a similar attic job 3 years ago. The heat in Phoenix just cooks the cheaper cable way faster, the dielectric gets brittle and you lose all your return path strength. Has anyone else noticed this kind of fade difference between cable types over time in extreme climates?
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matthew16629d ago
Man that @alexk60 story hits close to home because I've seen the exact same pattern out here in Tucson. It's wild how fast the cheap stuff goes bad when you're dealing with that constant oven heat. Pulled a 4 year old RG59 run off a roof last month and the center conductor was practically rattling around inside the jacket, dielectric was completely shot. The RG6 stuff I use now still looks decent after the same amount of time, just some slight jacket cracking but nothing that kills the signal. Makes you wonder why anyone still bothers with the cheaper cable in this climate when you're just gonna have to tear it all out and redo it in a few years anyway.
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alexk601mo ago
My buddy in Mesa had his RG59 drop go from good signal to almost nothing in four years, and after he swapped it to RG6 the numbers were exactly where they were day one. That 115 degree attic heat just destroys the cheap stuff twice as fast as any indoor run.
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