Re: Best brand coax and F connector for HD cable?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Lewis Gardner" <lgardner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> > Yeah, I've only been doing installs for 30 years, so what do I know? I
> > know what I have been trained on and what are best practices. Lots of
> > things will work, but that is not what I will recommend.
>
> Same here. I have been doing installs for 30+ years but I threw away the
> hex crimp stuff 10 years ago. You appear to be living in the past.

Haven't been doing crimping for 30+ but I can attest that a SNS connection
made by an rank amateur like me is better than any hex crimp I can perform.
Part of the reason is that a good SNS connection looks good - you can see
pretty quickly if it's not done right.  Not so evident with hex crimps.
I've seen more than one pro crimp pull out over time, especially if the
cable has aged a bit and lost some of its plasticity

On the issue of QS, maybe it's overkill from a signal leakage POV, but it
seems the thicker the overall shielding, the more resistance it has to
physical damage from nicks, cuts, scrapes, rodents and other mishaps.

Part of the reason I bought a compression crimper for the small amount of
cabling I do is to gain a slight edge on reliability.  It seems most people
believe SNS delivers.  That "reliability edge" is also why I use QS for
outside and "trunk" cabling - it's heftier, but not very much more
expensive.

I'll readily admit whatever extra protection I believe I gain is physical
and not electrical, and maybe not even physical, but only psychological, but
that's good enough for me!

I think there's an added benefit for tyros like me.  There's so damn much
braid and foil on QS that it's nearly impossible for even an amateur to
accidentally remove too much from the end of the cable before pushing the
connector in.  I'm sure someone's managed it, but not me.  At least not yet.

Removing too much braid accidentally is something I seem to do quite often
with the thinner RG-59 for CCTV use, especially, the 80% braid that's done
like an open basket weave.  (-:

The only thing I don't like about the SNS connectors, aside from price, is
that my Ideal connector wrench (screwdriver handle with an open hex wrench
on the end) won't fit on them - the SNS connectors are too big so I end up
tightening them by hand.  If anyone knows of a good wrench to tighten RG6QS
SNS connectors, I'd love to hear about it!

--
Bobby G.