NA - What the F?

wanttaja

wanttaja

Final Approach
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
5,667
Location
"War-Torn" Portland
Display Name
Ron Wanttaja
Home Airfield
Twin Oaks Airpark
Just bought a new home, been tweaking stuff until our move-in next month.

The house is wired for cable, of course... but in three places, instead of the usual F-connector jack, the coax sticks into the room with a male plug....
1748535092463.jpeg
The question is...why?

Note that the wall plate has a hole just big enough for the coax. This wasn't just pulled into the room through the hole.

Anybody got any ideas?

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
Just bought a new home, been tweaking stuff until our move-in next month.

The house is wired for cable, of course... but in three places, instead of the usual F-connector jack, the coax sticks into the room with a male plug....
View attachment 141486
The question is...why?

Note that the wall plate has a hole just big enough for the coax. This wasn't just pulled into the room through the hole.

Anybody got any ideas?

Ron Wanttaja
Click to expand...
IME, it isn't uncommon to see cable installers do it this way. Cheaper wall plates, fewer connections to make, no need for an extra cable to go from wall to TV. There's probably a bunch of coax stuffed in the wall. Yes, it is the lazy and unsightly way to do it.
 
Usually the plate has a barrel connector (double female F). THe cable from the distribution box threads onto the back and your line to the TV goes on the other.

There's damned good reason these are called F connectors. Anyhow, all the coax in my house is now dead after we got gigabit fiber and all the TVs use either WIFI or cat 5e wires to get their signal.
 
That’s just lazy or the wire is very long and you can pull it out and plug it in to the TV or modem directly.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Congrats on the new house!
Click to expand...
Thanks! Thought I had dodged a bullet, wife wanted to move closer to her relatives in Portland.

"Aw, honey, you know it'll be impossible to get a hangar."

She found me a hangar...flew the plane on it's longest cross-country in 25 years, and rolled it into its new home last Saturday.
1748540326402.jpeg
The hangar she found is twice the size and $200 a month less. Hate it when she does that....

Plane managed to develop a brake leak on the way, gotta grab tools from the old hangar before the movers pack it away. Until then Moonraker is marking its new home with both oil and hydraulic fluid.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Lindberg said:
IME, it isn't uncommon to see cable installers do it this way. Cheaper wall plates, fewer connections to make, no need for an extra cable to go from wall to TV. There's probably a bunch of coax stuffed in the wall. Yes, it is the lazy and unsightly way to do it.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Checked one, had only about two inches extra coax. That room had been set up with a router for the alarm system, probably the connector went directly to it.

Ron Wanttaja
 
One thing that might be a factor is that the drone shot of the house shows a satellite dish. Might be the male connectors are associated with it.

Ron Wanttaja
 
A lot of switch plates with female connectors just have a double female and the male connector connects behind the plate.
 
wanttaja said:
Thanks! Thought I had dodged a bullet, wife wanted to move closer to her relatives in Portland.

"Aw, honey, you know it'll be impossible to get a hangar."

She found me a hangar...flew the plane on it's longest cross-country in 25 years, and rolled it into its new home last Saturday.
View attachment 141489
The hangar she found is twice the size and $200 a month less. Hate it when she does that....

Plane managed to develop a brake leak on the way, gotta grab tools from the old hangar before the movers pack it away. Until then Moonraker is marking its new home with both oil and hydraulic fluid.

Ron Wanttaja
Click to expand...
Busted. You turned your post into A from NA.

Congrats on new hangar and home.
 
wanttaja said:
Checked one, had only about two inches extra coax.
Click to expand...
Seems a pretty easy 2-minute fix: crack the plate in two, screw on a butt connector and then nut the assembly on to a new plate.

The mystery cable running along the top of the baseboard would bother me a lot more than the coax.
 
asicer said:
Seems a pretty easy 2-minute fix: crack the plate in two, screw on a butt connector and then nut the assembly on to a new plate.

The mystery cable running along the top of the baseboard would bother me a lot more than the coax.
Click to expand...
Yes, I know how to fix it. Was just curious as to *why* someone would do it that way.

The mystery cable is part of the previous ADT alarm installation. It runs to a wall wart, powering something in the crawl space. Will cut it once we're moved in.

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
Was just curious as to *why* someone would do it that way.
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"It's well past midnight after a looooong day of pulling RG-6 and I just have 3 more crimps to call this job done. Uh oh, we're out of couplers."
Never been there before? :)
 
asicer said:
"It's well past midnight after a looooong day of pulling RG-6 and I just have 3 more crimps to call this job done. Uh oh, we're out of couplers."
Never been there before? :)
Click to expand...
:yeahthat:
Or even, "It's raining and I don't want to go out to the truck for another coupler."
 
asicer said:
"It's well past midnight after a looooong day of pulling RG-6 and I just have 3 more crimps to call this job done. Uh oh, we're out of couplers."
Never been there before? :)
Click to expand...

Dana said:
:yeahthat:
Or even, "It's raining and I don't want to go out to the truck for another coupler."
Click to expand...
Or just a plain old, “**** it.”
 
"It'll be behind the TV stand anyway, why would I care how it looks?"
 
Mine just has a hole in the floor with a coax sticking out. Yours is a much more elegant solution, IMO.

Congrats on the home for your plane!
 
The home we bought last year was wired for cable...every room had a jack. It also has a Dish Network dish on the roof, and every room has a separate jack for the dish. I've no idea which are connected to what, since our new cable/internet provider streams everything, so none of the TVs have a physical connection, the whole house runs on WiFi.

I'd be tempted to remove all of the jacks, as well as the long-dead intercom panels in many rooms, and the wall ports for the whole-house vacuum system that probably hasn't been used in decades. I'm pretty adept at patching drywall. BUT, every wall and ceiling in the entire house has that textured drywall finish that was popular for a minute around 1980, and I'd never be able to match the pattern in a repair. So I'll have to do what the previous owners did and leave all of the useless fixtures in all of the walls.
 
my house is wired for both cable and telephone so every room has at least one of each, it's kind of hilarious.

The only upside is that now I have an easy way to run cat 6 through the walls and I don't need to cut drywall.

Compared to my old house that was built in the 1800s, having electrical outlets on every wall every 6 feet is the best thing since sliced bread
 
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