Pretty big indictment of a profession, especially
considering coax cabling has been around for a few dozen
years. It's not hard to string coax, even a kid can do it
[......] This job can work fine
with $20 worth of parts, or it could end up costing several
hundred with no actual gain.
I stand by my indictment of the electrician trade for
installation of communication cabling - who cares how
long coaxial cable has been around?
It is significant, in that you seem to be implying someone
who does such things for a living can't grasp the concepts
inherant in a type of cable that is not new, not uncommon,
and not hard to string. I'd speculate that the typical
electrican doing installation work has several orders of
magnitude more experience with it than you do.
- electricians just
don't understand the effects that localized changes of
impedance have on signal propagation and what effects
the resulting signal reflectios have.
Nor do you if you think this is a serious consideration for
a single-ended cable modem run with the correct spec parts,
which are as common as dirt.
I have seen too
many ham-fisted installations in more than one city and
more than several residences to ever trust them to do it
right even if they're given a job description in writing with
all the requirements spelled out. And that goes for CAT5
and CAT6 cabling as well as for coaxial cabling. Decades
of habits of their trade don't just die for a single job, and
they believe just as you do - that "cabling is just wiring".
Because it is "just wiring". EVERY wiring has it's own
requirements though, which is to say that like any other
wire, this is a very basic thing you try to make as much of
a difficult and expensive venture as possible.
And indeed, the job can be done cheaply - although $20 is
quite below the low side (have you priced compression-fit
attachment tools?)
You don't need one. Again you make a moutain out of a
molehill.
- and it can be done by a kid who follows
the rules. So go hire the kid, give him the proper tools and
hardware and have him do the cabling according to written
specs. But don't hire an electrician, an alarm installer, or a
telephone installer to do the work. They'll install cabling "just
like wiring".
Yes, because it IS wiring. Maybe you, not they, conclude
"just like wire" means 3 conductor solid core 12 ga.? Lots
of different wire out there, the former wire also has
considerations, all do.
Maybe you've been called to a 'site because of a problem,
possibly a small % of installers, electricians or not, have
not done it correctly. Those small % of problem
installations are not evidence against the large % of other
installations working properly.
If the cable company had problems with electricans
installing cable, why would they recommend it? I suspect
they have more experience with problematic wire
installations than you and better assessment of whether the
work would be satisfactory, thus their recommendation.
This could be a relatively inexpensive venture or very
expensive. For a single-ended indoor cable modem run, going
the expensive route isn't going to gain anything.
