PSA: that 100 ft coax run in the attic taught me to stop trusting the cable I already had

Jade Lane · 2026-10-04T11:50:03.642778+00:00

So last Tuesday I was doing a basic install in a two story house out in Garland, nothing weird, just moving the modem to a back bedroom. The drop was about 100 feet from the box and I had a partial spool of coax sitting in the van that looked fine, so I ran it instead of grabbing a fresh one. Halfway through stapling I noticed a kink near the 60 foot mark but I figured it would not matter since the jacket was not cut. Got everything hooked up, modem would not lock, and the signal meter was reading like garbage on every channel. I must have re crimped both ends three times and swapped the splitter before I finally pulled the whole run and found the center conductor was nicked under that kink. New spool, 25 minutes, done, customer never knew. Now I test every partial spool with a toner before it goes in the truck. Anyone else got a stash of half used cable they refuse to throw out and keep getting burned by?

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PSA: that 100 ft coax run in the attic taught me to stop trusting the cable I already had | Cable Installers - Topic Shares