Coaxial cable comes in many different sizes, the most commonly used type for TV is RG6. The main two parts of a cable are the center conductor, and the shielding. The signal actually rides between the two thru the cable.

Cable companies use a copper-coated steel or aluminum center conductor. It works well enough for the frequencies they use, and is the best compromise for cost. Satellite companies prefer solid copper center conductors because copper carries voltage and signal better than steel or aluminum, and can have slightly less signal loss. Solid copper is the best choice in either case. Satellite users note: Most providers require solid copper center conductor type cable be used in order to be certified for use. Check your documentation, or check with your service provider, or use our solid copper center conductor types (SCCC) to be sure.

The shielding in standard cable is made up of a full layer of aluminum foil, covered by aluminum braid. The braid covers 60% minimum in a good quality cable.

Quad-shield cable has two alternating layers of foil and braid. This is used in situations where outside interference is strong, such as near a TV or radio tower, or near an airport or military site. It helps keep the interfering signal from getting into the cable and causing problems with your picture quality and modem speed.

In general, standard shielded cable is fine unless you are in an area as described above. Or if you just want the best, then use quad-shield.

All cable has signal loss. The higher the frequency, the higher the loss. Also, the longer the cable, the higher the loss. The loss is mainly dependent on the size of the cable. RG6 is a good compromise. RG59 is just too small to handle the full spectrum of frequencies used nowadays, but is still commonly used for security cameras because of the lower frequencies. RG11 is a bit larger than RG6, and should be used for cable runs over 250 feet long.
Beware of those "low loss" cables, there is no such thing.

Another very important part is the connector. We only use Thomas & Betts Snap-n-Seal connectors. They are the best in the industry. Back in the day, you could use the old crimp-on connectors with minimum problems, because the bandwidth was so small. But with todays high bandwidth signal, the cable needs to stay completely round for the best signal flow. Hex-crimped connectors will cause many problems because they change the shape of the cable from round to six-sided flat surfaces. TV and satellite signals need to have a smooth, uniform round surface to travel thru. Also, never kink a cable around a tight corner.  Always have at least a 2-1/2 inch radius on turns.

The picture below shows some examples of RG6 cable construction.

The 1st cable shown on the left is one of our quad-shield cables. Notice the thick PVC jacket, good heavy layers of bonded foil, and the amount of stranding. We only use the industry best compression style connectors that will not pull off and are waterproof.
The center conductor is solid copper 18AWG wire. This has the least amount of loss, fully swept to 3GHz. UL listed. SBCA certified. This is the top of the line stuff!

The 2nd cable is typical of a standard "cable company" cable. It is basically built the same as the quad, but only has one layer of foil and braid. But it has copper coated aluminum 18AWG center conductor and compression connectors. It is only swept to 1GHz, standard for cable TV. This should not be used with satellite TV or high-end systems.

The 3rd cable on the right is junk. Don't buy cable like this! The foil is not bonded and so thin, it tears off effortlessly. The braid is very thin and sparse, maybe covers 20% of the foil. The center conductor is a very small 28AWG steel wire stuck inside plastic tubing. Why cant you see it? It fell out.. The cheap crimp-on connector basically fell off after the jacket was cut off (very easily I might add). They cover it with thermo-formed plastic to make it look like it's more than it really is. This cable might have been swept to 55MHz, if it's been tested at all. If you have a bunch of this stuff running your TV's, good luck! Try to run your satellite on this stuff and you'll burn the wire up.

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