Shoutout to the old timer who told me to stop using staples for the shielded cable

Been doing residential installs for about 4 years now and always used staples to tack down the RG6. Ran into this retired Bell tech at a job site last month and he told me I was crushing the dielectric. I brushed him off at first lol. But after getting a call back on a job where the signal was tanking I pulled the cable and sure enough the staple had flattened the foam. Switched to those plastic J hooks he recommended and haven't had a single issue since. Anybody else learn a trick the hard way from ignoring someone with gray hair?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucashart1mo ago

Man that old Bell tech was absolutely right, I learned the same lesson after crushing a line with a staple gun and spending an hour chasing ghosts.

ryan_gibson841mo ago

Wait, you actually used a staple gun on a phone line? @lucashart, I can't believe you did that. I've seen what happens when people try to staple down those old copper wires, and it's never pretty. You're lucky you didn't blow something up or kill the whole line for good. Chasing ghosts after that must have been a nightmare.