A veteran cable puller told me I was pulling coax too tight and he was dead right

I used to crank coax cables as tight as I could get them to make them look clean and straight on the runs. This old timer, must have been 60, watched me for a minute and said "You're stretching the copper, you'll get cold joints in 6 months." He showed me how to leave a slight loop and just enough slack so the cable can breathe. Ever since I started leaving a little extra drip loop near the entry point, I haven't had a single callback for signal loss. Has anyone else gotten flak from old heads that turned out to be gold?

2 comments

2 Comments

evangarcia16d ago

That old timer's advice saved me a ton of headaches on the farm irrigation lines I used to run.

seth_martinez2116d ago

Put yourself in my shoes for a second here @evangarcia. That old timer probably gave you advice that was 20 years out of date, not a headache saver. My neighbor's cousin followed some old school trick for drip line spacing and ended up with half his crop drowned because he didn't account for the new soil sensors we use now. Times change fast on a farm, and what worked in 1995 can cost you money today.