The Best Coax Cable for CCTV Installations Leave a comment

When installing CCTV cameras, the decision of which cable to use is very important. Some coaxial cables are very good for CCTV camera installations whereas others are not advisable at all. So, how to distinguish which one is good and which one is bad you may wonder. For that, we should take heed of the industry standard. The industry standard for these kinds of cables is RG59 and it is by far the best choice for CCTV camera systems. However, it is important to keep in mind that even among RG59 cables, some are better than others. One must keep in mind that RG59 cables with 95 percent copper braiding and a solid copper core/inner conductor are the best cables to buy. One must also keep in mind that CCTV cameras have an impedance of 75 ohms.

Different kinds of Coax cables

Coax cables can be available in 75 ohms, 93 ohm, or 50 ohms. So, it may be important for you to learn how to differentiate between them and learn the pros and cons of the different products. One should never use 50 ohm and 93 ohms cables for CCTV installations. Only 75 ohms cables should be used for that purpose. RG6 can be used if it is required. That kind of cable has 95% copper braiding and a solid copper core. On top of that RG6 can run further distances when compared with RG59. Is that all you might ask. Not quite, on top of that, RG59 does not have any video loss whatsoever. Additionally, RG6 is more rigid when compared to its counterpart. It also happens to be thicker and can be difficult to work with. For analog CCTV, RG59 is rated at 700 feet and RG6 is rated at 1000 feet. The cable that is used the most is RG59.

Can CATV Coax Cables be used for CCTV Cameras?

What is the connection between the two you might wonder? The connection is that both CATV and CCTV are typically wired using RG59 or RG6 coax cables. They are not really the same types of cables. At that point, you might ask what the difference might be. The difference is in the inner conductor. For the CATV variant, the grade cable is made of copper. It also has a plate of steel instead of copper. Why the difference? It is because steel can resist more than pure copper and that results in video loss when the frequency is low.

CATV systems can use cables like that because they typically use higher frequencies. How does it work? The copper plating does not allow radio frequency to penetrate its steel core due to inducing loss because it is so thick. Sometimes it may be difficult to identify RG6 or RG59 for CATV. Checking the product specification might help with that as they have terms like “aluminum braid steel” or “copper-clad steel”.

Is it Different for HD CCTV Cables?

Compared to analog CCTV cameras, AHD cameras and TVI cameras usually operate using a lower frequency. Does that change what kind of cable to use? Not really. The cables used for this situation are also RG6 and RG59 with 95% braided shielding that comes with a solid copper core. That is important for a system like this because they require high bandwidth that cannot be found otherwise.

What happens in the case of 3MP, 5MP, and 4K Resolution?

“HD over coax” security camera systems continue to develop at a very quick rate. 3-megapixel, 5 megapixels, and 4k CCTV cameras can now be found as well. You might wonder if you can ever upgrade to these kinds of cameras from a lower version. If a good quality RG59 cable is used, then upgrading to these kinds of cameras is very much possible.