Cable Solutions "Signature Series 5CFB"

High-Performance RF Cable - Cable Solutions "Signature Series 5CFB"

With bandwidth to over 2 GHz, these Cable Solutions "Signature Series 5CFB" high-performance cables are ideal for many RF applications, including cable TV connections, satellite system down-leads, and antenna hook-ups.

We build these cable assemblies with Canare L-5CFB, which is an enhanced-performance RG-6 type cable, having a nominal OD of 7.7mm (.303").  It has an 18 AWG solid annealed copper center conductor, a nitrogen-foamed polyethylene dielectric, a 100% coverage aluminum foil shield, and a tinned braided copper secondary shield.  The cable is housed in an attractive matte-finished modified PVC jacket that stays flexible even in sub-zero temperatures.  This is a precision cable, manufactured to a high level of accuracy and like all Canare CFB-series cables, it is 100% sweep-tested to 2 GHz to ensure the highest level of performance in every sample.  When mated with Canare's excellent matching "F" connectors, it forms a 75 Ohm impedance-matched cable assembly that is in a class of it's own.

Canare L-5CFB cable is rather flexible, considering it's size and performance...more flexible that any other RG6-type coaxial cable that we have compared it to.  Flexibility is a desirable characteristic in a cable for several reasons - first, because it makes the cable easier to work with, but perhaps more importantly, flexibility prevents unnecessary stress on your equipment connectors.

The Connectors

The unique Canare "F" connector design features an electromechanically stable nickel-over-brass body, with an extra-wide torque nut and machined threads.  Unlike virtually every other "F" connector, Canare's design does not unitize the center conductor of the coaxial cable as the plug's center contact pin. Instead, the center pin is made from gold-plated brass.  This innovative approach avoids problems that are often associated with typical "F" connectors, such as corrosion, misalignment, incorrect length, and poorly shaped tip of the center contact.

The dedicated center pin design prevents equipment damage that can occur with lesser designs.  For example, the instruction manual that comes with Jensen Transformer's excellent VRD-1FF Cable TV Ground Isolator specifically warns that the warranty can be voided by damage resulting from using a center conductor that is misshapen, or too long.  This kind of damage will never happen with a Canare "F" connector because it is always exactly the correct length and shape!

The precision of the body design, combined with the dedicated center pin results in a precision connector.  This precision results in a 75 Ohm impedance-matched connector that connects up smoothly and accurately, providing a consistently reliable connection and thus a very high level of performance.

Performance in the real world

A while back, I was out on a jobsite, searching for the reason that the customer was experiencing marginal performance from his DBS satellite system.  The customer had multiple down-leads from the LNBF on his satellite dish to multiple satellite receivers.  Three receivers were showing a signal strength of around 90, but one was more like 25.

Wanting to eliminate the possibility of an under-performing receiver, I swapped one of the other receivers for the one that was showing the low signal.  It also showed a low signal strength, so I figured it had to be either a bad cable, or a bad port on the LNBF.

Up until this time, we typically used RG-6 Quad-Shield coax for this application, but unfortunately, I did not have any with me.  I did happen to have a 100 foot run of Canare L-4CFB cable, which is smaller than RG-6, but I figured that it would serve as a temporary repair.  The customer's existing cable run was only about 75 feet, so 100 feet was more than I needed, but that's what I had, so I went ahead and hooked it up.

Since the L-4CFB cable was smaller, and the run was longer, I fully expected a weaker signal than the other runs, so I was somewhat surprised to see that the L-4CFB cable was out-performing all of the larger and shorter RG-6 Quad Shield cables!  Whereas the other receivers in the system were showing a signal strength around 90, the receiver that I had connected with the Canare cable was showing about 95.  Well, I have always had some respect for Canare cables, but this really did seem to be too good to be true.  I thought maybe that particular receiver might have a more generous signal strength meter, so I swapped another receiver onto the Canare line, but it showed similar results.  I even tried swapping ports on the LNBF, thinking that one of the ports might have more output than the others, but no matter how I connected it, the Canare cable was always clearly superior.

Following this experience, I had the opportunity to make direct comparisons between Canare L-4CFB, and the larger, Canare L-5CFB, which is an RG6-sized cable.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the L-5CFB cable demonstrated an even higher level of performance than the L-4CFB.  Looking at the manufacturer's specs, one would expect L-5CFB to have a slight performance advantage over the RG-6 Quad-Shield cable that we were using, but not as much as I observed.  It seems that Canare's specs are rather conservative...or the other company's specs are more optimistic.

Since this discovery, Canare L-5CFB has become our cable of choice for all sorts of RF applications, always with outstanding results.  I feel that I should comment that Canare's "F" connectors are not water-proof, so they must be protected in some manner when they are used outdoors.  Honestly, the so-called water-proof connectors are not very water-proof anyway, so we have always considered it to be good practice to protect all connectors that are used outdoors.  We have used silicone grease, heat-shrink tubing, electrical tape, and various other methods with good results.