RG-6, RG-59...does this mean something to you. Read this!!?

Question

Okay so i ran some rg-59 and it was copper right. Now i know there is also silver. I got Rogers Cable to come by and put some ends on the copper one and he said he wouldnt because it could short out the cable for the whole block. Is this true? And whats the difference between silver and copper rg-59??

Answer 1

The Rogers Cable guy was just trying to save himself some work and laid some BS on you.

The only difference between "silver" and copper RG-59, really, is that the "silver" uses silver-plated copper wire (yeah, it's not pure silver, just silver plating), which I presume has improved conductivity for better quality.

Answer 2

Different types of coaxial cable.
Standard 75-ohm coax for cable tv or home antenna installations is RG-59. It is a single solid copper lead in the middle, surrounded by nylon or kapok insulation that is wrapped by a shield of foil or braided wire. The outer jacket you see is typically black, but also available in white or beige so it doesn't stand-out so visibly. The contents of the cable are not what matters... it's the impedance or resistance of the cable and it's shielding to prevent picking up interference and get the best quality signal to the set. Copper is the norm. Silver would cost much more per foot.
The only way somone could screw up putting a fitting on the end of RG-59 is if they did it deliberately. Shorting the inner conductor to the outer shield (ground) would really take some doing.

Answer 3

Silver is the best room temp conductor.
But to get low loss cable, RG-6 should be plenty good. Especially if you have it with a foam dielectric (poly ethylene), which has much lower loss than solid dielectric.
Silver costs MUCH more than copper, and (I didn't know they even made silver conductor cable) if they make it in silver, the small quantity that they make would push the price even higher yet. Also, is the shield made of silver as well? Should make the whole thing very heavy.
Since the signal travels on the surface of the wire, silver plating would do the job fine and keep the weight and the price more in line.
And shorting out the whole block? Wouldn't have anything to do with it being silver, only a lousy install job could cause that.

Answer 4

The important thing in long cable transmission is the capacitance, more than the resistance. Using siver will result in a small reduction in resistance but won't affect capacitance. (I really doubt that it is silver in the cable; I've never heard of that in coax, and it would be enormously expensive for very little value; whai I suspect is that it is silver colored because the conductor is tinned copper.) Most cable systems us RG-6 as it is heavier duty, and lower loss than RG-59. There's no way putting "ends" on the cable would short out the cable unless they were improperly applied. You can get screw-on (RF, type "F") connectors for RG-59 at an electronics supply store and put them on yourself.