Can I cut my TV Coaxial cable outside, extend it and cover junctions with heatshrink?

[bovine0001]

My co-ax cable for my TV/Internet is simply laying along the dirt of my backyard. I want to cut into it, place the appropriate connectors on the lines to allow me to make it longer and allow me to run it in a nicer/safer way. At these junctions, I would hope I could simply heat shrink them. What do you think?

 

[kanewolf]

They make weatherproof (waterproof) "F" fittings for outdoor coax junctions. The weatherproof fittings look like they are usually compression rather than crimp on. Buying outdoor rated crimp on, with some heat shrink should make a good connection.

When installing F fittings, I like to leave the center conductor long until the fitting is completely installed. Then trim the center conductor. Don't sweat using a couple inches of coax to make a good quality connection.

Quality RG6 coax is another key to long lasting problem free coax runs. Get a brand name like Belden.

 

[ahnilated]

Aah, your cable company should have buried that for you. Ours bury the cables for their runs. If it is something you ran then you can get cable connectors that you can hammer into the outside of your house to hold the cable up off the ground.

 

[tripledouce]

every adapter you place on your line will be more resistance/ interference on the line. i would call your provider and have them come do a proper job.

 

[kanewolf]

every adapter you place on your line will be more resistance/ interference on the line. i would call your provider and have them come do a proper job.

The insertion loss is only about .25 db for an F fitting splice with a barrel connector. So since there is an F fitting on both ends a perfect barrel connection is around .5 db loss. RG6 has about 5 db loss / hundred feet. One or two splices is negligible. Remember that a SPLIT has either a 3.5 or 7 db loss (2 way, 4 way). Most of the time the signal coming from the provider is pretty "hot" +10db because the provider expects losses in home wiring.