# Patching a CableTV/Internet Ground Line



## jpf566 (Apr 23, 2012)

I was working at a clients house and managed to cut the thick ground line from their cable provide. They had it no more than 6 inches under the surface…. It will be 10+ days before a technician from the company can come out and take care of this and the client wants to know if I can do a temporary patch of some sort. Has anyone worked with these? This isn’t normal Coax, it’s a very thick cable with a large copper wire in the middle, insulation foam, a metal exterior coating and then rubber on top of that.

Could I just run a copper patch from the one side to the other or does the metal coating transfer something as well? Any help would be much appreciated!


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

I would try and connect the center core together and then connect the outer shield being careful that they don't touch the center core. The outer shield can be peeled back and twisted together-- just butt splice the joints.


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## jpf566 (Apr 23, 2012)

Ok! the outer shield isn't a braided mesh though, its pretty much like sheet metal.


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

jpf566 said:


> Ok! the outer shield isn't a braided mesh though, its pretty much like sheet metal.


I would find a way to attach them together even with a piece of wire. If you can put them close together you may be able to slide a threaded rod or some rod and crimp them together.


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## jeffmoss26 (Dec 8, 2011)

it's probably RG11 or even hardline coax...RG11 uses F connectors but hardline has its own thing altogether.


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## jpf566 (Apr 23, 2012)

Yeah I just googled "Hardline Coax" and thats exactly what it is.


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## jeffmoss26 (Dec 8, 2011)

Hate to say it, but that is best left to be repaired by the cable company.
They use connectors like this:
http://www.ppc-online.com/broadband/hardline.php
They generally heat shrink everything with a torch as well.


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## hbiss (Mar 1, 2008)

There is nothing that you can do that will make it work. They are going to have to wait if they can't get the cable company off their butts.

-Hal


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