sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Coax, a stupid question (length limit):

I think you have some bad cable or bad connectors. I use Cambridge 2 piece 88-2 connectors and have no problems, at all. They are good quality connectors and are almost idiot proof.

I have had video make it on 1,000' of RG6-U. If the cameras are LED "low light" cameras, then it's probably a power pair issue. You need to make sure of two critical items: At what voltage are the cameras designed to operate? Some are either AC or DC. You can run 1,000 feet on an AC supplied camera, about 300' on a DC supplied camera if all things are good. Some cameras don't care if it's AC or DC, and some have strict current requirements.

To properly verify coax cable, you would need to sweep test it. Recently, however, some CAT 5-6 verifiers have the ability to verify coax as well. The old and very effective method of testing coax is to check a 75 ohm resistor with an ohm meter and record the test results. Then go to the far end and connect the resistor to the center and braid. Read the ohm meter. You should not see a significant increase in resistance at 200'. 18 gauge copper wire has a resistance of .00751 ohms per foot. That would mean your test should read no more than 3 ohms higher when testing the entire span. (remember it's 200' out and 200' back) You could do the same with the power pair. Find out what the gauge of the wire is and do the same test.

I would bet it is either a current issue if the cable is good or you have some bad connectors.

Rcaman

Yeah, I'm starting to lean towards an open somewhere in the coax. I'll do the resistor test and see what happens.

I've eliminated the power pair as the problem by bypassing it and getting power at the camera for testing.

Distance is fine and well within range. You need to test power, perhaps too much of a volage drop; place a meter on it and let us know.

Some of the worse connections are screw-on BNC connectors to F terminations. If you can; replace with compression BNC direct to cable.

Big mistake moving from RG59 to RG6, that’s not a solution as it is a misunderstanding.

Maybe cheap cameras.

Try using 24VAC, if the cameras can support it.

Power is good. The problem is in the Coax.

The one cable that I changed to RG-6 was based on
a.) Availability, and
b.) Troubleshooting / distance testing.

I am now certain that distance is not the issue.

An update -- On the new siamese, it appears that my skills in attaching compression ends are a bit lacking. There is a point where the end feels like it's fully inserted, and there's a deeper point where it really is fully inserted. Apparently I missed that fine point the first few times...

So that cable is up and working. The existing siamese ... I'm thinking that it's damaged somewhere in the middle. I'm going to abandon it and run a new cable.

Thanks to everyone for the help and advice. Happy New Year!