coax next to service cable

[pharmboy]

I am running telephone, quad-shield RG6, and Cat 5e cable for my new house. I'm not able to go from the structured wiring panel to the outlets without somehow passing by the HUGE service cable coming in from my meter to the electrical service panel. I've read that you should stay at least 12 inches away from regular electrical wire (14/2, etc) when running parallel and at least a couple inches when passing perpendicular. What about when passing perpendicular to the service cable? Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

[Mike44]

There's no need to stay several inches away when passing perpendicular. The directional magnetic field produced by the service wire will have no effect on the coax wire in this orientation since both magnetic fields are at 90 degrees (no canceling effect).

If running parallel with it, that's when the magnetic fields will intersect and you'll get the interference (you'll get an additional weak 60 Hz signal induced into your coax line which is visualized as static).

Not to mention, if you have quad shielded RG6, that's plenty of protection. To prove it's effectiveness, I've seen very decent signal quality on quad shield RG6 which ran parallel to a 10/3 dryer feed for about 40'.....not something I'd do, but hey it still worked.

Mike

[pharmboy]

Thank you! That makes me feel a lot better!