TIL coaxial cable specs from the 80s are way different than today

I was digging through some old boxes in my van last week. Found a spool of RG-59 from 1987. The shielding is basically aluminum foil, no braid at all. Looked up the specs online and it only handles like 50 MHz tops. Today's RG-6 can do 3 GHz easy. Been running new drops with that junk for some older clients. Just assumed all coax was the same. How many of you still see ancient cable in attics?

2 comments

2 Comments

sarah_hart11d ago

Ha, hold on now. I gotta push back a little here. Not all that old coax is total junk. Yeah, RG-59 from the 80s with foil only is pretty rough for modern cable internet or satellite, no argument there. But I've seen plenty of the old RG-6 from that era that had a solid copper braid and a decent core, and honestly that stuff can still pass a signal just fine for basic TV or over-the-air antenna feeds. Plus a lot of those old drops were actually terminated better than the crimp-on connectors people use today, they'd have these compression fittings that you just don't see anymore. So I think it's more of a mixed bag than just "it's all garbage.

leobrown11d ago

Whoa, yeah that's a good point! I actually read something the other day about how some of that old RG-6 with the solid copper braid was way better shielded than the cheaper stuff they make now with just a foil wrap and a flimsy copper core. Makes you wonder if we were building stuff to last back then and now it's all about cutting costs.