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Found out coax cable loses about 1 dB of signal per 100 feet at 1 GHz and it finally made sense why my runs kept failing
I was reading through an old install manual from a training class back in 2019 and it had a chart showing signal loss per 100 feet at different frequencies for RG6, and at 1 GHz you lose roughly 1 dB for every 100 feet of cable. That number clicked for me because a 200 foot run I did in a two story house in Dayton last month had a weak signal at the far end and I couldn't figure out why until I did the math on paper. Do you guys keep a loss chart handy when planning long runs, or do you just eyeball it and hope the tap levels work out?
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wendy_lee483h ago
That 1 dB per 100 feet number hit me the same way when I finally saw it on paper. I did a 250 footer in a ranch house over in Fairborn a while back and the far end was so weak I thought the splitter was bad, swapped it twice before I did the math. 2.5 dB gone just in the cable and I hadn't even counted the connectors yet. Now I keep a printed chart folded up in my truck door, the one with RG6 and RG59 side by side so I don't have to guess. Long runs I add it up before I pull anything, saves me a second trip up the ladder every time.
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derek_lee3h ago
A 250 footer losing 2.5 dB is really just normal cable loss, nothing to fix.
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