Do magnets affect satellite signal?

statalite

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I'm considering putting a temporary installation of coax in for an unspecified amount of time, the house is terraced so I'm looking at getting coax going over the roof, at the reception side of the house I'm looking at getting some flat cables so the coax can pass through my window, however the window has some magnetic strips on the inside holding a plastic frame with a mesh to keep bugs out etc so I want to keep these, will the satellite cable / signal be adversely affected by the magnetic strips?

TIA
 

statalite

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Flat cable _________________________________ will be your downfall. Can you not find an air brick or vent nearby ?

Does the property have a letter box ?

(Cat flap ? )
 

statalite

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It's an upstairs bedroom so those aren't possible.
Downfall in terms of reliability and or attenuation?
 

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It's an upstairs bedroom so those aren't possible.
Downfall in terms of reliability and or attenuation?
Both, because by using a flat cable to cross the window you are introducing two extra losses one for each connector, continued opening and closing of the window will eventually lead to insulation damage, but of course if your signal is strong enough to begin with you will probably get away with it, but it is also dependant on the length of the initial cable run
 

statalite

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I'm intending to be careful when using the window.

The dish is a standard zone 1 for 28.2e with a 4 port lnb, 2 ports are already in use, intending to use the other 2. I think the run will be 15-20 meters.

I could buy higher quality coax to compensate eg wf100, would this help over RG6?
 

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I would avoid buying from any supplier claiming WF100 is lower loss than RG6. From memory they are both 18dB at 1GHz and 30dB at 2GHz along a 100m run, give or take a couple of %.
 

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On a 20m run there probably wouldn't be much difference betweeen properly installed RG6 and WF100, but the construction of the latter is considered "better" because it uses copper conductors and screening materiels throughout, whereas RG6 uses a steel core - the former are lower loss and less likely to suffer corrosion.

Note that "WF-series" cables are those from the WEBRO brand, but there are "similar" cables from other manufacturers marketed as "CT 100" and claiming the same performance as the WEBRO ones - That may be the case, but not all CT100 cables are as well built as the the WF-series ones (I tried CPC Farnell's CT100 version but found it to be stiffer and also the copper foil shield was more brittle and broke off more easily than genuine WF100).
 
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The RG6 CCS is the one that uses steel in the conductors, you can get 100 % copper centre core RG cable without difficulty (and I would avoid suppliers that promote their wares above others by suggesting otherwise). RG is a generic term btw, bringing together a common aspect of the cross section dimensions and very little else.

Please continue to post misleading attachments though, I need a laugh.
 
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PaulR

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I agree that RG6 merely defines its physical and some electrical characteristics but to say that RG6 has the same loss factor as WF100 is misleading. It can be the same, as WF100 is covered by the RG6 specification, but RG6 will also cover a fairly awful copper coated steel centre core with aluminium foil shielding and skimpy braid shielding.
 

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RG was originally used as a very old US military designation for coax, Radio Guide and the number/letters after it gave the classification for the usage, size and internal characteristics.

So RG-6/U coax was a standard radio signal guide of a specified diameter with an internal center conductor sizing of 18 AWG, a dielectric insulation and a woven or foil shielding, at a nominal 75 ohms impedance, with a flexible jacket , the /U after the numbers designated it for general utility use.
 

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And if the window slides up and down, (or side to side) you could make a bottom (side) window threshold out of wood with a hole the diameter of the coax drilled through it, pass the coax (without a connector on it) through this hole in to the receiver, then crimp or a connector on it and your done.

A 1"x 1" piece of wood cut to length would keep the window closed.
 

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And if the window slides up and down, (or side to side) you could make a bottom (side) window threshold out of wood with a hole the diameter of the coax drilled through it, pass the coax (without a connector on it) through this hole in to the receiver, then crimp or a connector on it and your done.

A 1"x 1" piece of wood cut to length would keep the window closed.
Not very many houses or apartments have wooden windows these days as they are double or triple glazed and the frames are UPVC, it is very wet in the UK, therefore the flat cable will be subject to physical distortion owing to the design of wind and draught proofed UPVC windows
 

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I agree that RG6 merely defines its physical and some electrical characteristics but to say that RG6 has the same loss factor as WF100 is misleading. It can be the same, as WF100 is covered by the RG6 specification, but RG6 will also cover a fairly awful copper coated steel centre core with aluminium foil shielding and skimpy braid shielding.
I refer you to post 7
 

statalite

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In post 7 I have made the assumption that wf100 would be "higher quality" than RG6 it have since become clearer that these are not so different if you get good RG6 is how I understand it after posing the question if one of these is better than the other.
 
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PaulR

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I was referring to this statement.
I would avoid buying from any supplier claiming WF100 is lower loss than RG6. From memory they are both 18dB at 1GHz and 30dB at 2GHz along a 100m run, give or take a couple of %.
 

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Just my €0.02, from experience...

WF100 vs. "RG6" - WF100 is essentially a subset of RG6 coax, if it could be called a subset as RG6 has no strict rules on its dimensions or materials in the present day. In the UK, most RG6 isn't sold as using only copper for the metal, which is what makes WF100 stand out against "RG6" - at a cheap level RG6 is sold with a copper clad steel core wire with the shield and core only being aluminium. For the average installation in the UK of a single dish aimed at 28E this is unlikely to be an issue and over the average 10 to 15 metres length of the coax from LNB to receiver, the difference in signal loss will be very little, if any is actually noticeable. The biggest concern would be that the use of the higher resistive steel and aluminium metals in the coax can cause a larger DC voltage drop across the "RG6" coax compared to the all-copper WF100 over the same distance which could result in some LNBs not switching polarity correctly, causing "No signal" messages to appear etc. Beyond that, some "RG6" might have a pure copper core, but have say an aluminium foil shield covered by a fairly thin copper braid, and the dielectric can be either foam or hollowed "honeycomb" plastic.

On to the short "flat coax" joiners, I've used them a fair few times for both satellite and terrestrial use over the last number of years and are very useful in either temporary situations, or where drilling into a window frame or a brick wall is not an option. Whilst the theory mentioned by another poster involving a drop in signal levels because of the two joins in the flat cable is definitely possible, I've never noticed any difference myself in using a flat coax piece in marginal situations. The one thing I would say about them however is that these "flat coax" pieces are very fragile - ordinary coax can, depending on its materials and manufacturer, stand up to varying levels of abuse and weathering and while this "flat coax" hasn't given me grief due to weathering or UV exposure (though the usual caveat applies in waterproofing the external join of the flat coax connection, ideally with self amalgamating tape or maybe heatshrink), it will not take repeated window or door slams terribly well. If you need to use them, make sure they go through a window that is rarely opened (ideally never except maybe once or twice a year for cleaning) and when closing it, be gentle. The "flat coax" can fail very quickly thanks to even mild abuse through repeated crushing. In saying that, I had for several years used such a piece to allow a coax cable feed into my kitchen for terrestrial TV & Radio where I couldn't drill into anything at the time, and prior to that I once lived in a flat (third storey up) where the only aerial point was in the living room, and so to feed a split-off into my bedroom I used two pieces of flat coax at a window in each room that had an ordinary coax cable strung between them which did the trick - drilling through the wall into the bedroom was definitely not an option! So if you're still thinking of getting a "flat coax" piece, get at least two if not more. That way if one should quickly fail then it you will have a spare at least to quickly replace it with (weatherproofing & waterproofing not withstanding).
 
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