The day I realized my coax ends were all backwards

Been doing installs for about 4 years now. Last month I was on a job in Oakwood and a senior tech walked by while I was terminating a line. He asked why my center conductor was cut at an angle. I told him that's just how I always did it. He pulled out a continuity tester and showed me I was getting bad readings on half my connections. Turns out I was stripping the jacket too far back and the conductor was touching the shielding inside the connector. Been at least 2 years of subpar signal strength in some houses and I never knew. Has anyone else done something dumb for years without realizing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

rileygonzalez19d ago

Nah, I used to think the opposite but you're right, I was wrong.

jason7319d ago

That angle cut thing is a classic mistake. The real trick is to strip just enough jacket so the conductor barely pokes past the connector face. If it sticks out more than a millimeter or two you're asking for trouble. Getting a good compression tool that has a built in stop helps a lot. Also check your connectors some brands have different depth specs. Pretty much had to redo a whole day's work once because of that exact issue.