How do you tell RG59 vs RG6?

[Rondo1]

This may be a stupid question, but please bear with me. 

I'm about to upgrade to all DP technology and would like to first determine if my wiring is RG59 or RG6.  When I bought my newly constructed home back in Aug of 2001 the house was prewired for cable.  Due to the fact that there was both a crawlspace and attic, I had the builder add a 2nd line to every location using RG6 for "future" use.   Now, as I prepare to move to dual tuner systems, I find that this was a good move.  BUT - what I don't know is if the builder used RG6 for the initial cable runs.  Is there anyway that I can tell?  Thanks for any assistance that you can provide on this issue.

:hi:

[Pete K.]

Yep...look closely at a section of cable.
"RG 6 or, "RG 59" should be printed on it in teeny, tiny letters and numbers.

[adsman]

Originally posted by Pete K.
Yep...look closely at a section of cable.
"RG 6 or, "RG 59" should be printed on it in teeny, tiny letters and numbers.

Just for thought...I have ran into some cable that doesn't have the cable type on it...You also can check the thickness of the wire, it will be quite a bit bigger than rg 59. I am surprised that a house that was built not so long ago wouldn't have rg 6 installed anyway... good luck :)

[bunkers]

Usually a RG-6 is a considerably harder to bend than a RG-59 cable. Yes, you can bend both, but the RG-6 seems stiffer when you try to bend it, and I think the inner core is a bit large and the diameter a tad bigger as well. I have found the my home (built in 1993) didn't have any indication of its cable type on the cable, but did contain some serial numbers -- but I didn't have much like finding those numbers on the web.

You might also check to see if any Mhz or Ghz is specified on the cable -- that might indicate whether its RG-6 or not. If you see the upper Ghz range, then it must be RG-6.

[ericha]

"Traditional" RG-6 has an 18 gauge center conductor, while RG-59 has 20 gauge, although this isn't a guarantee. If your wire has an 18 gauge center conductor, you'll be fine--I'm pretty sure that the Dish Network spec for RG-6 is to ensure that the loss in the LNB control voltage is sufficiently low.

[raj2001]

Actually, you all are right.

RG-59 has a small center conductor, a smaller foam dielectric and single shield.

RG-6 has a larger center conductor, a larger foam dielectric and double or quad shield.

The result is that RG-6 has less signal loss than RG-59 and is less prone to signal ingress and egress. It has nothing at all to do with control and power supply voltages sent to satellite LNB's.

Mind you, over short runs it won't really matter anyway so you can use RG-59 in place of RG-6.

[Rondo1]

Wow. Thanks everyone for your quick responses. when I get home this evening, I'll check the two wires at the plate. I'll just compare the size of the two cables to see if they seem to be the same size. My only concern was that I saw on EKB that DishNetwork requires RG6 for their new DP technology, so I was concerned that if it isn't that I may not be able to suffiiciently upgrade my systems. THANKS!

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Rondo1
My only concern was that I saw on EKB that DishNetwork requires RG6 for their new DP technology, so I was concerned that if it isn't that I may not be able to suffiiciently upgrade my systems. THANKS!

Well, if DP uses a higher frequency from LNB to receiver, I'd say yes, you may need RG-6. Signal loss is greater at higher frequencies, and a lower loss cable would be to your advantage.

[ericha]

"The thickness of the white foam part is what differntiates RG-59 and RG-6". Yes, but that's half the story. The thing that determines the impedance of the cable is the ratio between the outer & inner conductor diameters. So if the foam part is thicker (i.e. the distance between the inner & outer conductors), the inner conductor must be bigger as well--the two go hand in hand, at least if you want to keep the 75 ohm impdedance. That's why RG-58 50 ohm cable is smaller than RF-59 75 ohm cable--the center conductor is the same diameter, but the ratio of outer to inner is smaller for 50 ohms than for 75 ohms, so the outside diameter has to be smaller for a 50 ohm cable than for a 75 ohm cable with the same center conductor.

[bunkers]

I would agree with Zac -- that if your cable runs are kept fairly short, then even RG59 would probably work fine. If your talking about a 50 to 100' run of cable, then yes, make sure its the good stuff. You can alway try it and see how it works first.

[Eyedox]

How do you tell the difference?? Oh that's easy ... when you purchase cabling in the store, the packaging will clearly state RG-6, RG-59, or Kite String. :D

[sampatterson]

I have both RG59 and RG6 in my house, can't tell the difference for runs less than 100 ft. Signal strength is the same. I know this is subjective to many variables but it is what I have.