RG6 coax cable question

We just purchased a Winegard RD-9046 portable satellite dish that came with a 25’ coil of gray Belden 2.25 GHZ, Duobond II, 75 ohm, Series 6 1C18 coax cable. The instructions state that if additional cable length is needed, to use a high grade RG-6U type foam cable suitable for satellite signal.
The Belden cable is supple and it didn’t hold coil memory, unfortunately I wasn’t able to obtain a signal with the shorter Belden cable due to the trees in the yard so I had to use a recently purchased 100’ coil of Phillips RG6U, 75 ohm, 2300 MHz, 18 ga., Quad shield cable from Walmart. The Phillips package says that the cable transfers signal 3x faster, and protects signal 8x better than regular coax.
The Phillips cable has a larger diameter and is stiffer, but the most noticeable difference is that it holds a coil memory.

When I finally got a good signal using the Quad shielded Phillips cable, I have to admit that the picture on the older Sony 13” TV was excellent.

The dilemma is that we want the best possible picture but I would much prefer a cable that doesn’t hold memory so it will lie flatter on the ground to prevent someone from tripping over it plus it wouldn’t kink nearly as easy.

Does anyone know if the Belden cable is a premium grade cable and would it work as well as the quad shielded Phillips for a 100’ length?
I going to call Winegard tomorrow but I'd like to get some input from others that use a portable satellite dish.

Thanks in advance.

[ShrimpBurrito]

The cable transfers the signal 3x as fast? I'm not an AV guy, but that sounds like garbage. I mean, really, do you experience a delay at home when the cable signal is sent from the TV station via satellite to the cable station, and then through cable to your house? Sure, but I'm sure it's on the order of milliseconds, if not less.

Belden makes some great cables, but you're unlikely to find them at WalMart. Signal loss over a 100' length of RG-6 is going to be very low anyway, regardless of brand.

The key, however, is the quality of the connections and connectors, and again, you're not going to find quality at WalMart. You can lose significant signal strength in every connector, so it is imperative that you minimize their use, use the highest quality you can, and seal up those exposed to the elements (I use Coax Seal). The higher the frequency, the more critical it is to preserve signal strength, and a satellite signal is probably fairly high (as in Ghz). With a cable signal (like from a campground post), preserving signal strength is not a concern. Any 'ol cable from the local drug store even will work just as good as a pricey cable because the signal is fairly strong.

With satellite, it's my understanding that the signal is digital. That means you either have a picture or you don't; there's no in between (unlike analog, where you got snow). Low digital signals show up as picture freezes and pixelation. So if you're getting a picture without those effects, it's not going to improve with lower loss cable.

I've used a company out of Seattle before (www.bluejeanscable.com), and they seem to use great quality connectors and do a good job installing them. They cut to length, but they are definitely more expensive than WalMart. A 100' run with 2 connectors will run you $66. But if you only need 75 feet, or 60 feet, just order that. And they come in fancy colors, like easy to see yellow and orange.

Since you're only talking about 100 feet (and probably less if you can order your desired length), I would bet that you'd be able to get away with using the RG-59 at Bluejeans (the Belden 1505A). It should be more flexible than your RG-6 since it's one gauge smaller (20 gauge vs 18), and with the higher quality connectors, will probably have comparable (or even less) signal loss to what you are using now. It weighs 3.1 lbs for 100 ft, so probably 3.5 lbs including connectors. Compare that to what you have now.

FWIW.

Dave