Old timer told me to zip tie the coax at every joist and I fought him for months

Tbh I thought this old timer on a job in Nashville was just being extra. He said to zip tie the coax cable at every single joist instead of every few. I ignored him for like 3 months on different jobs. Then last week I had a service call where a homeowner was getting pixelation on their main TV. I traced the line and found a bunch of the cables were sagging between joists. That little bit of movement was enough to mess with the signal over time. So I went back to that spot and redid it his way with a zip tie at each joist. Signal cleared right up. Guess the old guy knew what he was talking about. Anyone else ever get humbled by advice from a veteran installer?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles7207d ago

That bit about "pixelation" - was it actually pixelation you were seeing, or more like freezing and breakup? Pixelation usually points to a signal issue like you said, but sometimes it's from compression or a bad splitter too. Glad the zip ties worked out though.

the_viola7d ago

Oh wow, I always thought it was just bad cables. Mind blown lol.

mark_green7d ago

Had a buddy who chased a "pixelation" problem for weeks, replacing cables and splitters, only to find out his neighbor's ham radio setup was causing interference. Tech came out with a spectrum analyzer and spotted it in five minutes, moved a filter and it was night and day. So yeah, sometimes it's something weird you'd never think of, not just the cable itself.