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        How to repair coaxial wire cable          Repair Procedures                               Learn non-coax wire repair


     Summary: Repair the ends of coaxial wire for cable or satellite.

  

If your TV reception is a little fuzzy, or you are getting nothing but snow, then your coax wiring could be bad.

You should first locate the damaged portion of the wire. Most homes are fit with a cable or satellite junction box on the side of the house. This is where the main coax comes in.

Your particular junction box may have up to 6 coax wires exiting the junction.

             

                

 

Note: Some junction boxes are locked up, please check with your cable/satellite provider before opening.

Step 1 Determine whether it is just one TV or several in your house that has poor reception. If it is just one TV, then it is from the junction box outlet to that particular TV where the damage is located. If all the TV's are coming in fuzzy, then check the main in coax for damage, and proceed to step 4 or 5.

Step 2 Once you have it narrowed down to one coax, first check the ends for obvious damage as this is where most will occur. If no damage is found, then you will have to physically scan the entire length of the cable unless you have a TDR (Time domain reflectometer).

Step 3 We will now assume you have found the damaged portion or end, so the next two steps will be the repair procedures.

Step 4 End piece repair- First cut off the damaged end connector cleanly with a coax wire cutter. Now using coax strippers, strip the outer layer insulation back about 1/2 of an inch evenly. You should now see some wire strands surrounding a smaller white plastic insulator. Using your coax strippers, strip about half of that down to the solid copper wire in the middle.

So, you should now be left with a 1/4 inch copper solid wire, and 1/4 of white insulator with wire strands wrapped around it. Now pull back the wire strands over the outer black insulation to expose the white insulator. Lastly, slide on a RF coax crimp connector, and crimp down using a coax crimping tool. (Use either a crimp style or twist on style) All that should be protruding through the connector is the solid copper wire. All of these tools and pieces are available at your local electronics store.

See pictures below.

    Coax Strippers        Coax      coax             Coax crimped

     The strippers             Coax Stripped down         Coax with strands folded back        The coax crimped

 

Step 5 If you find a broken middle section on your coax wire, you will have to cut out the broken area, and perform step 4 on both cut ends. You should be left with two male connector ends, now purchase a female-to-female connector, and plug each male end into it. You have now spliced your coax the easy way.

                                                         female-to-female connector

                                                        Coax female-to-female connector     

                                                 See more how-to articles

 

   

              


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