RG59 Siamese Cable Prices

[MasterVision_Tech 0]

I'm starting to get my wire from sewell direct (sewelldirect.com). Their prices are pretty decent. $94.00 for a 1000' spool of RG59.

[SEANHAWG 1]

You'll be dissapointed to find out that Sewell's cable is copper coated aluminum not only for their power wires but the Coax cable as well. What is even more wierd is that there shielding is even copper coated aluminum, 95% copper coated aluminum. They are very deceptive on their advertising on eBay as well, they say solid copper conductor, but when you read the specs, it says solid copper coated aluminum.

 

Here is a link their spec sheet:

http://sewelldirect.com/download/drivers/rg59%20siamese%20cable.pdf

[hardwired 0]

Keep in mind this deception involving copper-clad aluminum also includes CAT5 cable, beware of really cheap Chinese CAT5, as well...

 

I was just thinking about this, seems like you should be able to tell from the weight of a given length of cable, aluminum is a lot lighter than copper.

 

Unless all the lead in the PVC cable insulation brings the weight back up

 

 

From Wikipedia:

"The American market was flooded with copper clad cable imported mostly from China and falsely presented in the market as being a 100% copper Cat 5e cable. With less copper involved in the manufacturing process, the cost to the consumer is lower, yet the consumer is not getting a true 100% copper Cat 5e cable.

 

Installation of copper clad aluminum Cat 5e wire was proven — by low-voltage contractors in the Southern California market, where this cable first arrived — to have poor test results and often did not pass the Category 5e transmission standard. Since copper conducts electricity better than aluminum, signal strength has shown to be very weak over long runs using this substandard cable."

[rory 0]

Unless all the lead in the PVC cable insulation brings the weight back up

I didnt know there was lead in the cable insulation? Is this the same for all?

[Birdman Adam 0]

Might not be the same for all, but there are plenty of cables of all types that have lead in them. I think they use the lead because it makes the stuff easier to manufacture and form.

 

If you've ever strung up holiday light strings, they have a lot of lead in them!!! One time after I strung about 500 feet of them, my hands were literally darker with the lead dust!

 

Good thing is, pretty much everything with dangerous levels of lead has some sort of label on it telling you so.

 

Please thoroughly wash hands after touching stuff like that!!!

[SEANHAWG 1]

I am curious to see how many of you guys that use siamese cable use the cable that has solid copper stranded power wires.

 

I was astounded to find out how readily the market had cable with a solid copper coax core but the power wires were copper clad and how somewhat sparse the supply was for both solid copper coax and solid copper power wires. I called a couple of reputable CCTV suppliers here in town and they acted like the copper clad power wires were the norm and they didnt even stock the siamese cable with solid copper power wires. One guy told me that solid copper power wires will conduct at longer lengths, but power over copper clad is going to run at least as far as the video is going to run. Even one of my big time cable suppliers in California didnt have that type of siamese cable in stock.

 

If you have never done it before, cut open your siamese cable and check to see what is copper clad and what is solid copper.

[jeromephone 6]

Stranded copper will conduct more power than solid. All your high voltage transmission wires are stranded. Again why not buy solid copper center on the rg59 copper braid shielding and 18 ga stranded copper? How much can you save by going with a cheaper marginal grade of wire?

[SEANHAWG 1]

I am sorry if I wasnt clear on what I meant. I did not mean that the cable was a solid one piece power wire. I was still referring to the stranded power wires but from what I have found, most of the siamese cable has copper clad stranded wires as opposed to solid copper stranded wires. It seemed like all my cable suppliers said they would have to special order me some of this stuff because they didnt stock it.

 

From what I have found, most of the siamese cable on the market is like this, online and brick and mortar stores alike. There is a large CCTV wholesaler here in my hometown who acted like this was totally out of the norm to have the type of cable that had solid copper stranded wires. And even one of my suppliers in California who specializes only in cable had to special order me the cable that had the solid copper stranded wires because he only stocked the cable with the solid copper coax core with the copper clad stranded wires. And this company sells alot of this cable to several CCTV retailers throughout the nation. So I was just curious to see if anyone else uses siamese cable that had the solid copper coax core but has copper clad stranded power wires. I would bet that alot of folks arent aware until they cut a piece off and look at it because most cable spec sheets do not spec out whether the stranded wires are solid copper or copper clad.

[Birdman Adam 0]

Why is it that CCA (copper clad aluminum) is so popular?? Obviously it's cheaper...

 

Is it used often because you can get away with it? Like the signal usually doesn't get degraded to the point where it's noticed?

 

I've been looking around for good places to buy cable and almost everyone has that CCA stuff...

[Soundy 1]

If it's just the power wires that are CCA, that has no effect on the signal.

[kenneth978 0]

For all those who have been debating solid vs clad let me state this, the electrons travel on the outside of the wire not the core.

That's why braided wire handles more current, it has more outer surface (surfaces)

[Tailbone215 0]

For all those who have been debating solid vs clad let me state this, the electrons travel on the outside of the wire not the core.

That's why braided wire handles more current, it has more outer surface (surfaces)

 

You have got to stop reading those Monster Cable adds with their famous "foreskin effect" and the non-oxygenated mumbo jumbo.

[Birdman Adam 0]

What he is saying is actually pretty true. For example, in home electrical wiring, #8 SOLID wiring has a lower ampacity rating than #8 STRANDED wire. This is possible because of the skin effect of AC electricity:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect

 

Basically, the current will mainly flow on the surface of the wire, with flow on the surface increasing with frequency. This is due to the changing magnetic field created by AC. So the more surface area, the less resistance.

 

CCA obviously uses this to its advantage, as copper conducts better than aluminum. Its not as good as pure copper though, because with 24VAC 60Hz, the skin depth is ~8.5mm. So the aluminum is contributing to increased resistance.

 

What I wonder is why we aren't working on nano-stranded (and braided) cables! The resistance would be tiny - you could pull huge currents on smaller wires. That is the sort of idea that could make (and save) billions!

[Nimrod 0]

What he is saying is actually pretty true. For example, in home electrical wiring, #8 SOLID wiring has a lower ampacity rating than #8 STRANDED wire. This is possible because of the skin effect of AC electricity:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect

 

Basically, the current will mainly flow on the surface of the wire, with flow on the surface increasing with frequency. This is due to the changing magnetic field created by AC. So the more surface area, the less resistance.

 

CCA obviously uses this to its advantage, as copper conducts better than aluminum. Its not as good as pure copper though, because with 24VAC 60Hz, the skin depth is ~8.5mm. So the aluminum is contributing to increased resistance.

 

What I wonder is why we aren't working on nano-stranded (and braided) cables! The resistance would be tiny - you could pull huge currents on smaller wires. That is the sort of idea that could make (and save) billions!

 

 

No, what he is saying is not true. This thread is talking about RG59 siamese cable with 18 AWG power cables. The skin effect of 60HZ voltage is about 8.5mm or .0984 inches. that means until the wire reaches 10 AWG at .102 inches it has no effect. 18 AWG wire is .0403 inches and 60HZ has no skin effect on it.

 

CCA is not using skin effect to its advantage since solid 18AWG is less that half the required diameter for skin effect to take place. I suspect that the wire is copper coated because joining copper wire and aluminum wire together causes A galvanizing problem. this is why copper conductors require specially rated devices to be connected to them, switches outlets etc.

 

What is worth mentioning is that aluminum wire has to be de-rated about 25% of current capacity from copper wire.

 

And as for Nano wires the problem is making them in any kind of usable lengths. Now they are only used for very short distances like inside of battery’s.

[jeromephone 6]

I have lost jobs for many reasons but I don't think it happened too often because I used 100% copper cable made by a leading MFG.

 

I feel it is always best to use the highest quality components possible and still get the job. The cheap cable is really costly if you have to replace it. We had a job where a piece of fiber went bad. Our supplier (Grayabar) got two factory reps out to check out things took samples back to corning and figured out the problem. I don;t think that is happening with the cheapest mfg

[ptzguy 0]

Another question on this:

 

Do you guys prefer to use the cable that has the foil shielding around the white inner part of the coax cable or do you prefer to use the cable that does not have that foil shielding?

 

Without for me, I hate the foil wrapped white core...

I also put my external cables into copex/flexible conduit - it's the 'right' way to do it.

Talking of 'cheap' RG59 - my ex-employers always cut corners and bought the cheapest of everything. I installed a camera outside a comm's room once, the extremely easy cable run was less than 5m... no picture, checked BNC's - still no picture...

I belled out the RG59 and there was a break in the freshly opened RG59! The full roll went in the bin and I returned the other rolls.

100m 'skinny' rolls bought in Dublin - watch out you Irish installers.

[SEANHAWG 1]

Yeah I have learned alot and experienced alot about cable since I opened this thread a long while back. The only cable that we use and sell is the stuff that has 95% braided copper shielding, with no foil wrapped core. The center coax conductor has to be solid copper. Having a solid copper coax conductor is very important and I have experienced first hand that the copper clad coax conductor is way more sub par than the solid copper.

 

As far as the 18/2 power wires go, the cable we use has copper clad power wires. We also bought the cable that has the solid copper power wires and could not tell much of a difference between the 2. It did not make sense to pay the extra money to get the cable that had the solid copper power wires.

 

Anyone who purchases the cheap flexible RCA type siamese cable that you can find on ebay will quickly be dissapointed. I have had several customers who purchased that type of cable call me up and say that the cameras they purchased from us arent working, but after some quick troubleshooting, the culprit is always the cheap cable. We send out the good cable to them and problem solved.

[phil889 0]

Sorry to revive an old thread but it's been a great read.

 

I'm doing my own shopping for RG-59 Siamese and my local supplier carries:

 

Supplier: Vonnic

Type RG59 + 18/2 Siamese Cable

Quantity (ft) 1000ft

UL Listed yes

Packaging Spool in Box (easy pull packaging)

Power 18/2 AWG

RG59 18 AWG Center, 95% copper braid for longer distance and enhanced signal reliability

Color Black

Product Dimension (WxDxH) 14.6x14.6x13.4in (37x37x34cm)

Package Dimension (WxDxH) 14.6x14.6x13.4in (37x37x34cm)

Package Weight 46.3lbs (21kg)

Vonnic CB500B 500FT Bulk Siamese Cable UL Listed

UPC: 814927010734

 

I contacted Vonnic via email and they responded that the coax CORE is 95% copper AND the braid is 95% as well. The 12VDC cables are CCA.

 

My question is: does 95% copper = solid copper core? I am very skeptical about their response and not sure if they are giving me correct information. If the coax core was solid copper core, wouldn't they be happy to state that on their product info page?

 

Fyi, it is selling for $80 CDN dollars for 500ft which is cheap compared to what I've read here. I am located in Mississauga, Ontario.

 

Comments/suggestions?

Thanks!

 

Phil

[shockwave199 0]

I think it would be cool if cctv suppliers offered 18-2 without the coax too. Sometimes you just need the power wire. 18-2 is readily had I know, but if you're dropping things into your online cart and simply need some 18-2 for a run, it would be convenient I think.

[fa chris 0]

Have you tried direct from a distributor or manufacturer? Like Anixter, Lake Cable, Belden, etc?

 

Siamese only makes sense for residential so I never use it.

[jeromephone 6]

I know there is probably not a problem due to the low voltages involved but we have seen jobs were a UL rating is required. I guess it pretains if the cable might be offshore non tested material. given the choice I would go with UL approved.

[IdahoMan 0]

BUMP.

 

Any recommendation on sources? (Cheap and of good quality)

 

 

Sincerely,

IM