TIL I was crimping coax ends wrong for like 3 years

Finally watched a tech from Comcast do a termination on a job I was shadowing last Tuesday. He barely stripped any jacket off and got a perfect compression fitting. I was leaving like an inch of braid exposed this whole time and wondering why half my connections failed within a few months. Anyone else have that 'oh crap' moment where you realize you been doing a basic step wrong the whole time?

2 comments

2 Comments

sandralee27d ago

Charlie, I gotta gently push back on that "gives you a better grip" part. Leaving too much jacket stripped actually means less of the connector is clamping onto the cable itself, which can cause signal loss over time. A clean, short strip seats the dielectric right up against the pin for a better connection.

charlie_roberts8727d ago

Hold up, I gotta push back on this a little. Leaving more jacket stripped actually gives you a better grip on the cable and stops the connector from pulling off over time. Ive been doing it the "wrong" way for years and maybe 1 out of 50 connections failed on me, and that was usually from me bending the cable too tight. Those tiny strips the techs do look clean but seem way more prone to slipping if theres any tension or temperature change. Plus, if you trim the braid clean and push it back, the extra exposed jacket just makes the whole thing sturdier. Sounds like you mighta been using cheap connectors or bad tools, not the wrong technique.