By Brian Bauer, Raychem Corporation
The CATV drop, the source of a high percentage of trouble calls, has a lifetime greatly dependent upon corrosion at the F-lnterface. This corrosion can be influenced in many ways, including the presence of currents on the drop.
Many emerging technologies, such as those required for signal security and on-premise amplification, will have power requirement schemes which draw from the subscriber premise or mainline via the drop. In addition, many drops currently carry stray sheath currents originating from stray effects of power on the feeder. As a result, the drop can see many waveforms of primarily low level AC and DC currents.
As part of a Cablelabs funded project, this paper explores the nature of existing and future current loads on the drop and how these different forms effect corrosion of the F-interface. Practices are suggested which may improve reliability and performance based on findings.