RG6 coaxial cable is the artery of a DStv installation: a copper (or copper-clad) core carrying the signal, insulated and wrapped in shielding foil and braid, jacketed against weather. It connects the LNB on your dish to the decoder in your lounge — sometimes three metres, sometimes forty, across roofs and through walls.
Good RG6 is engineered for exactly this job: low signal loss at satellite intermediate frequencies, shielding against interference, and a UV-stable jacket. It is also the component most often undermined by shortcuts — thin lookalike cable, staples through the jacket, kinks around gutter edges, and runs far longer than the loss budget allows.
What professional cable work looks like:
- Correct cable, correct length. Genuine RG6 from the Ellies/Belden/CommScope tier, with long runs calculated against the loss budget rather than hoped about.
- Mechanical care. No kinks (they permanently deform the dielectric), no crushing under clips, gentle bend radii, and protection where cable crosses sharp edges.
- Weather discipline. Drip loops at every entry so water runs off the cable instead of along it into the wall or the LNB; UV-rated jacket for exposed runs.
Cable faults are gradual liars: they start as occasional pixelation in rain, mature into intermittent signal loss, and finish as a dead system — usually during something you wanted to watch. If your installation is old enough to vote, a cable health check is the cheapest insurance in the chain.
Brands we fit and service
The rg6 coaxial cable market splits into hardware built for South African conditions and lookalikes that fail at the first hard season. These are the manufacturers we trust on Durban installations:
- Ellies
- Space Television
- Belden
- CommScope
- PPC
- Televes
- Nexans
- CBI Electric
Official DStv hardware information: dstv.com · installer accreditation via MultiChoice.
When the rg6 coaxial cable goes wrong
These are the failures we're called to most often — each with its symptoms, causes and our fix on the dedicated problems page:
- Water ingress along the cableE48-32 — Rain-linked pixelation that outlasts the rain; corrosion at connector ends; in bad cases water visibly weeping from a cu…
- UV-perished jacket — Exposed cable that is faded, chalky or cracked; faults that creep in over years.
- Rodent damage — Sudden total signal loss, or intermittent faults that move when the cable is touched; gnaw marks in roof-space runs.
- Kinked, crushed or pinched cable — Permanent signal degradation after building work, a new gate motor, or furniture moves; fault location often invisible.
- Excessive cable length / wrong cable type — Chronically low signal on an otherwise healthy system, especially to outbuildings and granny flats.
Need this fixed or installed?
Our DStv Cable Replacement service covers rg6 coaxial cable work across Durban and surrounding areas — from R350, quoted upfront and backed by our 6-month workmanship warranty.