How to Splice a Cable TV Wire

This spring you decided to install some yard lights. As you dug alongside your home, your shovel kept slamming into something that felt like a tiny root. You finally got annoyed enough investigate to find you have been slamming the shovel into the buried cable line and have cut it up pretty badly in one spot. You cannot rebury it and expect a good reception, so you will need to splice the cable TV wire.

Things You'll Need

• Wire cutter
• Coaxial cable stripper
• Compression tool
• RG6 compression fittings
• F6 barrel

Instructions

1. Cut the cable in the damaged area. Make sure you have enough slack to work with. If you do not have enough slack, then you may have to call the cable company for a service call.

2. Use the coaxial cable strippers to prep both ends of the cut cable. Clean off any loose wire from the copper. Pull the remaining attached wire away from the white plastic center. Note: Ground RG6 is sometimes very sticky to work with, and the little loose wires that were cut when you strip the cable will stick on your fingers.

3. Press the end of each newly stripped cable ends into an RG6 compression fitting, making sure the white plastic part becomes flush with the metal inside the end of the fitting that will attach to the barrel.

4. Use the compression tool on the fittings. You can put the cable and fitting in only one way, so this part should go quickly. Squeeze the compression tool until you feel the compression fitting give a soft snap.

5. Now install the barrel between the fittings, tightening them as snug as you can to keep out dirt. A cable technician does not usually wrap electrical tape around this kind of splice, but it works great for keeping dirt and water from corroding the metal. When you have the splice the way you want, lay it back into the ground and cover it up. Figure out which direction the crew buried it so you will not have to make another splice in the same cable farther along. Barrels slightly decrease signal strength.