RG11 vs. RG6

September 17, 2007 7:36 AM

Can I plug an RG11 cable into a VCR, or is the inner wire thicker than regular old RG6 coax?

I know this is something that's easy to check, but I'm not close to the problem right now, and was hoping that someone with more knowledge than I might give me a quick tutorial.

Our AV guy is telling me that there's no way to connect it, but I suspect he's not really that into finding a solution. Surely there must be some type of adapter, right?

posted by richmondparker to Technology (5 answers total)

It should work fine as far as the physical connector goes, but what are you trying to hook up with this crappiest of all video connections? Unless it's analog cable TV I'd suggest finding another way to do it.
posted by contraption at 8:19 AM on September 17, 2007

RG11 usually has a 14AWG center conductor, RG6 is 18AWG. The difference in O.D. between 14 and 18 AWG is 0.0238". If the F-connector on the back of your VCR has particularly tight tolerances, that might be enough to keep it from fitting. However, it's likely that the connector has wide tolerances and you can squeeze it in, if you try. Three-thousandths of an inch is pretty snug.

The specification (PDF) for the female F-connector states that the maximum diameter of the inner conductor guide is 0.068", meaning that 14AWG (which is 0.064") may just barely fit, but a lot is going to depend on the construction of the connector.

Without actually going and trying it, it's hard to say more specifically than that. If it doesn't fit, you could always bring a soldering iron, BNC connector, and BNC-to-F adapter (put the BNC on the cable and then attach it to the VCR with the adapter). That would create some insertion loss but it's better than no connection at all!
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:38 AM on September 17, 2007

There will be a way, without too much hassle. If it is indeed F-Type that you're using, then there should be a number of F-Type connectors available to suit different cables. Including screw on and solder connectors. Otherwise it will probably be possible to terminate with a different connector and then convert to F-type.

RG11 isn't exactly way out of it's element in a standard TV installation, so it shouldn't be a major hassle.
posted by sycophant at 2:39 PM on September 17, 2007

Seconding that the tolerances are too close to call and so you'll need to snip a bit of wire and try it -- and that COAX is a crappy way to get signals around, and you're better off with proper line-level signals and distribution amplifiers if you can already afford an AV installer.
posted by davejay at 3:07 PM on September 17, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for the quick responses. I'm headed back to work tomorrow and will try it out to see how tight a squeeze it's really going to be. And for what it's worth, the application here is really low end analog video, so I'm not worried about quality (but thanks for the heads-up).
posted by richmondparker at 3:25 PM on September 17, 2007