I want to add a new cable to my existing (Sky installed) satellite dish.

By the looks of it, there are currently 6 (including two dual cables) connections to it and there are two spare connections available on the dish.

Am I right in thinking that I can just get a cable with f-type connectors at each end, fixing one end to the dish and the other to the (Freesat enabled) TV?

If so, what is the specification of cable? I see some places just refer to it as coax while others are more specific about it being ‘satellite’ cable and then there seem to be different codes

eg screwfix show
Labgear RG6 Satellite Coaxial Cable 25m White (28547)

and

Labgear PF100 Satellite Coaxial Cable 25m White (45490)

TIA 🙂

yes.

Ah, I was hoping you’d be on, ton 🙂 Thanks mate 🙂

Off to screwfix then!

It’s just plain Co-ax so any externally rated cable will do. Just remember to put in a drop loop below where it enters the house so that water doesn’t get in.

wise word……. ^

Aren’t they different resistances or something? Could’ve sworn I’d read somewhere once (satcure? maybe) that there was two different ratings.

You mean the cable impedance, Cougar? Most coax cables are either 50Ohm or 75Ohm. I know all UHF TV cables are 75Ohm – not sure about satellite feeds.

Most Amateur radio transceiver connections tend to be 50Ohm.

Rachel

Yeah, same difference (DC / AC). Thin Ethernet is 50 Ohm also IIRC. Does it matter for satellite cable?

aerial cable and satellite cable both work for sky systems. most runs are short, and there is not enough loss for it to be a problem.

or read that as ‘sky use the cheapest cable they can get away with’.

That makes sense – so it only becomes an issue with longer cable runs? What sort of length are we talking? (Nothing to do with me ofc, I’m just curious.)

(But we knew that.)

30m is the benchmark.

Groovy, ta. Every day’s a school day. Which should you use beyond that?

ct100

75Ohm double copper foil screened cable. If you’ve a 4G mast nearby then this what you need but the alloy foil screened cable will do otherwise (this is what Sky will use). The copper screened costs more than the alloy version.

Ah, that helped my Googling. It was SatCure I was thinking of.

http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/cable.htm

Nice one, cheers.

Thanks again.

The run is around 25m so I went for PF100. I’ll let you know if it doesn’t work 🙂

Done and works perfectly. Thanks again.