Just finished mounting tv on wall and now moving on to fishing wires from loft into bedroom for free view and freesat. I’m currently planning on hooking up the freesat cables to my external dish however wanted to check what is the correct cable for this? I may be looking into Sky Q in future and don’t know if it’s all the same cable for freesat and sky Q?
Wiring Freesat With Correct Cable - Same As Sky Cable?
- Thread starter *Dan*
- Start date
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Use Webro WF100 or Triax TX100 or Labgear PF100 and you won't have any issues at all. These are good all-copper cables.
Personally I use WF100 for all my install work, but that's because I buy it in 250 reels. If you're looking for shorter lengths then there are resellers on Ebay that do the twin "shotgun" version of this. Just make sure that it is genuine WF100: Check the pictures because WF100 has the outer jacket marked with "Webro WF100" along with the length marked in metres.
WF100 is an RG6-sized cable. It's roughly a 7mm diameter. RG stands for Radio Guide and it's a set of specifications that list out physical dimensions and the impedance of the cable. What it doesn't specified is the materials for the construction. So, RG6 is a shielded 75 Ohm coax, but there's nothing in the basic spec to say how good or poor the shielding is, or what it is made from, or what metal has been used for the centre conductor. That leaves a lot of scope for very different levels of performance.
WF100 is up there at the top, but there's a lot of crap RG6 using copper-coated steel (CCS) for the centre conductor and plastic (Mylar) + aluminium braid for the shield. It's cheaper of course, but for a job running a few tens of metres then the cost difference comes in at just a few Pounds. My view is that it's better to get the good stuff now and have something that will last 20-30 years. Saving a fiver is a false economy if the cable needs replacing much sooner. I've been to sites where an aerial has been in for under five years, the cheap RG6 outer jacket weathered and cracked in sunlight, then
let water in which corroded the aluminium and made the cable fail. A fiver saved then £100 in remedial work to fix the problem, it just doesn't add up.
Sky Q will be perfectly fine with WF100 too. It's better than the cable spec that Sky are currently using. The only thing to add is that the installers putting in Sky Q are fussy about cable with joints or that goes via wall plates or other intermediary devices such as distribution amps.
Personally I use WF100 for all my install work, but that's because I buy it in 250 reels. If you're looking for shorter lengths then there are resellers on Ebay that do the twin "shotgun" version of this. Just make sure that it is genuine WF100: Check the pictures because WF100 has the outer jacket marked with "Webro WF100" along with the length marked in metres.
WF100 is an RG6-sized cable. It's roughly a 7mm diameter. RG stands for Radio Guide and it's a set of specifications that list out physical dimensions and the impedance of the cable. What it doesn't specified is the materials for the construction. So, RG6 is a shielded 75 Ohm coax, but there's nothing in the basic spec to say how good or poor the shielding is, or what it is made from, or what metal has been used for the centre conductor. That leaves a lot of scope for very different levels of performance.
WF100 is up there at the top, but there's a lot of crap RG6 using copper-coated steel (CCS) for the centre conductor and plastic (Mylar) + aluminium braid for the shield. It's cheaper of course, but for a job running a few tens of metres then the cost difference comes in at just a few Pounds. My view is that it's better to get the good stuff now and have something that will last 20-30 years. Saving a fiver is a false economy if the cable needs replacing much sooner. I've been to sites where an aerial has been in for under five years, the cheap RG6 outer jacket weathered and cracked in sunlight, then
let water in which corroded the aluminium and made the cable fail. A fiver saved then £100 in remedial work to fix the problem, it just doesn't add up.
Sky Q will be perfectly fine with WF100 too. It's better than the cable spec that Sky are currently using. The only thing to add is that the installers putting in Sky Q are fussy about cable with joints or that goes via wall plates or other intermediary devices such as distribution amps.
Perfect thanks for the detailed reply really helped managed to find some webro shotgun wf100 10metre for £16.70 online so will go for that. I’m also going to wire in a freesat connection from aerial in loft but may as well wire in the freesat connection while I’m at it. Read that somewhere else about sky not liking breaks in connections so may just divert the cable around the wall plate in case we want sky in there in the future.
I'm pretty sure that's just a typo - or I hope it is, at least - because Freesat only works from a satellite dish. (It's the same set-up as for Sky since the signal comes from the same satellite.) Freeview is the one that comes from an aerial - and in your case it's the aerial in the loft. The two systems are not interchangeable. The signal from a satellite dish (or the LNB to be more precise) won't give a picture when connected to the aerial socket on a TV, and likewise, any satellite tuner whether Freesat or Sky won't work from an aerial feed.
Also, thanks for the "thanks" Did you know though that a much better way to show your appreciation for good info is to click on the Thanks button that appears when you hover your mouse near Multi-quote Quote on the lower right corner of a post? Do this for EACH post that you found helpful. It costs you NOTHING and gives kudos to the person who took the time out of their day to give you the benefit of their knowledge. It also helps people who might stumble across a post when searching on Google.
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Can I use this type of cable (WF100) from my free view aerial in loft to my TV or would you recommend a different type of cable for freesat aerial install?
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