BT style CW1378 cable.

[RF Lighting]

Hi does anyone have any experience working with this cable?

It's the stuff that BT sting between telegraph poles and to your house.

Is it twisted pair cable?

I'm looking for something I can suspend point to point for CCTV using one pair with baluns on either end for video, and the other pair for RS485 control.

I've used cat5e for this loads of times with great success, but I don't think it'll like being suspended in the air as it has no tensioning wires within, and thought this might be a good alternative as accesories such as drop wire clamps etc. are readily available too.

 

[OwainDIYer]

it's twisted pair, but different twist pitch to Cat 5.

 

[bernardgreen]

The amount of twist is adequate to prevent crosstalk between pairs at audio frequency and to reduce it sufficiently at ADSL frequencies for ADSL to be usable.

Whether it will be OK at CCTV is un-certain ( in my opinion ) but as you only have one TV signal in the cable TV cross talk is not a problem. The data pair may pick up some TV signal but it will not be enough to affect the data on RS485. The data might affect the TV signal but only to an insignificant / unoticeable amount.

 

[RF Lighting]

I think I might get some and give it a go. I'll test it on the bench first, and if it doesn't work, it's no big deal.

 

[Infidel]

You could get some external grade cat 5e and suspend it via a catinary wire.