Satellite cable vs ordinary coax?

[Tim]

Sorry for being a dullard here, but can anyone tell me if there is a difference between what is sold as Satellite cable and ordinary aerial coaxial cable?

I need to move my TV and the satellite cable is not long enough, but I do have some aerial coax, can I just put the satellite plugs on the other coax cable... seems to me they are pretty much the same thing

[Reid Malenfant]

Aerial coax tends to have a really poor screen with about 10% coverage, it really is dire stuff. Satelite coax has the same kind of screen but also a complete coverage with copper foil.

I'd get some CT100 or CT125 satelite coax if i was you Tim

[Tim]

Thanks Mark, ordered some CT100 cable

[HighFidelityGuy]

For future reference, here's some good advice from my local aerial shop:

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/cableand...maincabletypes

They really know their stuff.

[DSJR]

Good advice and I suspect this copper foil stuff would make a great audio interconnect and/or digital interconnect too, as long as the copper itself is of good quality. I wonder if the expensive Naim interconnect is related to the twin satellite stuff?

[Tim]

For future reference, here's some good advice from my local aerial shop:

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/cableand...maincabletypes

They really know their stuff.

Excellent link Dave, thanks for that, I have learnt lots from it and the cable I have ordered should do me fine

[HighFidelityGuy]

It should certainly make a good digital interconnect being true 75 ohm, especially if paired with BNC connectors. As for analogue cable I'm not sure. It would be interesting to try. It seems that with aerial cable the main design consideration seems to be screening to preserve signal quality. Whereas with Hi-Fi cables the main focus seems to me on conductor purity. I guess the reason behind that is that aerial cable is designed to carry delicate low voltage signals. Hi-Fi signals will probably be higher voltage. Although that will depend on where the cable is used in the signal path. Between source and preamp/integrated amp the signal will be around 2-2.5V in non-balanced cables. Between a preamp and power amp the signal will be much lower. So aerial cable might work better in that lower voltage connection than in those with higher voltages. That's just a theory though.

Aerial cable is quite stiff, so it will be trickier to use and most RCA connectors aren't designed to allow coax cable to be terminated to them whilst maintaining a coaxial geometry. Crimped connectors would probably work best but that would limit connector choice.

[HighFidelityGuy]

Excellent link Dave, thanks for that, I have learnt lots from it and the cable I have ordered should do me fine

No probs. It's a great website, there's tons of fascinating info on there. They're a proper no nonsense bunch that have spent a lot of time figuring out what works best and they only sell quality gear.

[Reid Malenfant]

Beg your pardon Dave but so called "hifi" signals are way above those received by any aerial or satelite dish. You'll be talking microvolts received by a satelite dish or TV aerial, where as standard hifi looks like 700mV (millivolts) or a hell of a lot stronger

[HighFidelityGuy]

Beg your pardon Dave but so called "hifi" signals are way above those received by any aerial or satelite dish. You'll be talking microvolts received by a satelite dish or TV aerial, where as standard hifi looks like 700mV (millivolts) or a hell of a lot stronger

That's exactly what I said isn't it.