ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Voice - Data - Video Discussion Coax Crimper and Splitter questions

I was looking at coax crimping tools yesterday, I am considering going with the "Snap and Seal" system. It was forty bucks for the crimper. The end result is very professional looking and supposedly water tight. Any recommendations from anyone? Also, where do you get those splitters with the rubber boots? Graybar?
I noticed the splitters at my supply house are 900MHZ, while the ones the cable company uses are 1000MHZ. Is there much of a difference in performance?
Thanks, Brian

There's a good question for the pro's.

Do we really need a fancy crimper or are the regular 'twist-on' RG-6 connectors I use good enough?

The Snap and Seal system, and others like it, are good for outside work but still require a sealing ring on the port before you screw on the connector. The connectors are comparatively expensive and not well suited to indoor installations. So, if you are a cable company and most of your connectors are outdoors this is for you.

I have only used hex crimp connectors and a Cable Prep crimper even when I was doing CATV work. The standard method of weather proofing connectors is a rubber or plastic "spark plug cable" boot filled with silicone grease and slid over the connector and port. Never had a problem with outdoor fittings made up this way even 10 or more years later.

I noticed the splitters at my supply house are 900MHZ, while the ones the cable company uses are 1000MHZ. Is there much of a difference in performance?

If the CATV system you are tied to only goes to 750Mhz (as many do) obviously a splitter that will work up to 900Mhz is just fine- and then some. On the other hand if the system goes to 1000Mhz and you are using 900Mhz splitters there could be some additional attenuation in that last 100Mhz, maybe, maybe not depending on how good the splitter is. Will it be noticable? Probably not but the practice is to use passives that are designed for at least the highest frequency that must be handled. 1000Mhz passives are standard these days for CATV, 2050Mhz for DBS and satellite.

Do we really need a fancy crimper or are the regular 'twist-on' RG-6 connectors I use good enough?

To put it simply the twist-on connectors are for DIY's.

-Hal

Thanks Hal! You are a wealth of information!

Hal, where does one get silicon grease, it is almost impossible to find? I bum spare tubes from the CATV guys almost everytime I have one around. Other than that... Not at Greybar, or anywhere else I know of.

I personally prefer compression connectors over crimp connectors. I started using snap-n-seal connectors over 10 years ago then switch to Digicon connectors a few years ago. I find the Digicon connectors to work better with RG-6 Quad cable. For inside use the crimp connectors will perform fine if installed properly but this applies to all connectors. I will not touch screw on connectors and have yet to see one installed properly.

For those who don't know what a Digicon connector looks like here is a picture.

Mark, is this what you are looking for?

Yep!

Had to pull up the picture properies to get the web site. No supply house around here carries it. Absolute essential for outdoor stuff.
http://www.arrisistore.com/product.php?pid=133148

Looks like an interesting site by the way.

Yup, Arris Telewire Supply but their web site really doesn't do them justice. Go right to the catalog which is tough to find- http://www.arrisi.com/telewire_supply/_docs/TeleWire_Supply_Catalog.pdf

There is also Toner Cable- and TVC- http://www.tvcinc.com/ as well as North American cable- http://www.northamericancable.com/

-Hal

[This message has been edited by hbiss (edited 01-18-2005).]

Saw some splitters at Lowes last night that were rated at 1 Gigahertz!!! Is that overkill??