House re-wire - magic eye

Morning all,

I've done a bit of Googling but struggling to workout this one.

I'm having the house rewired completely, and want to have a TV with a sky feed (using magic eye) in the kitchen. I'm worried that running the RG6 cable in parallel with the main cable runs with cause interference or even worse, breach regs.

I would love to run it separate, but with RSJ's and half the ceiling already pulled down I'm hoping to avoid anymore destruction.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

9" of separation should be enough to avoid the worst of mains-borne interference. Don't let the builders/electrician supply the coax though. Get something decent rather than whatever cheap "low loss" stuff the electrical wholesaler happens to stock. A decent WF100 will do fine. Look for Webro or Belden brand if you can, or failing that then at least CAI certified cable.

Chris is right on all counts. RG6 in the UK usually has only an aluminium screen. WF100 has copper and will tolerate interference better. Even so, 9 inches separation should be considered a minimum, although radiation obeys a "square of the distance" law so you don't have to go crazy.

Thanks for the replies. This is going to be quite tricky, as there is only 'one' way into the area and will cross/run along at least 3-4 2.5mm twin and earth (there will be at least 180cm where they'll be parallel). Thinking it may be best to just route it around the outside of the house.

Is it likely to pick up a lot of interference? to the point where, I may as well rip it all out... (nothing has been plastered over yet).

Close proximity will pick up the 50 Hertz "hum". That's easily avoided and, if you don't have 9" to spare, you could zig-zag the coaxial cable across the mains cable to minimise pickup.

However, the main problem will be impulse interference caused by switches and thermostats. This will cause a brief interruption in reception, which could get quite annoying if it's frequent.

Obviously nobody can answer "Is it likely to pick up a lot of interference?" except to say "it depends". It depends on how much interference your appliances generate and how strong. If you have close neighbours, their interference could also contribute.

Another possibility is to shield the cable by running it inside steel or iron conduit.