standard coaxial cable - RG59 or RG6?

homerhd · Post by **homerhd** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:30 am

I have to run a 100' coaxial cable to an upstairs bedroom to view standard digital cable. Is there any quality differences in coax that I should be concerned with or will any standard off the shelf RG 59 / U work ok?

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:18 am

Use RG6, RG59 is outdated for most current applications unless you are still on a 30 channel cable system from the 80's...

akirby · Post by **akirby** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:45 am

Make that Quad shield RG6.

Fish123 · Post by **Fish123** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:39 am

I fully agree with the other responses. Use the best shielded RG-6 you can afford for a run of that length. When you mention "digital TV", RG-6 is then the cable of choice by default (carries the higher bandwidth that digital requires). RG-59 is designed to carry "old" analog signals.

I have two runs that are around that length in my house and the cable company installed a multi-outlet amplifier in the basement where the cable signal comes into the house to ensure distribution of a strong signal for both TV and Internet (using a correct splitter) in one room and digital TV in another. You may need something similar for amplification depending on the quality of the picture you see once the TV is hooked up.

Good luck.

ragnars · Post by **ragnars** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:11 am

Let us not get confused with "bandtwith" and "analog/digital". Both RG59 and RG6 have the bandwith necessary and there is no difference whether the RF is modulated with analog or digital signals.

However, there is a difference in attennuation or signal loss. For a 100 foot run at 750 MHz (the top frequency of most cable systems today, although there is a movement to 1000 MHz or 1 GHz) the difference in attenuation is about 1.3 dB ( 6.96 dB for RG59 vs. 5.62 dB for RG6) which is not very much.

But RG6 is the more modern and preffered cable and you can find much better quality (read: shielding, "quad" being the best) there than in RG59 which has not been much improved in years. The only advantage of RG59 is that it is slightly thinner and more flexible than RG6.