What kind of wire is this?

kaliyama

If this isn't a cable line, I have no idea where my apartment's cable is. The line that looks like a cable line was the prior tenant's satellite connection and leads only to wear the dish used to be.

Xaquin

It sort of looks like old electrical wiring only without the ground wire.

If I were you, I'd do one of two things.

1: Call someone you know with a volt meter to see if it's live

or

2: cut your power at the panel (just shut it all down), strip the wire back maybe a half inch and put a twist on wire connector (one for each wire) and wrap that with electrical tape. Then find someone with a volt meter.

kaliyama

Thanks. Why would electrical wire have a hole in the middle of it? That's where the ground wire should go?

Xaquin

wait there's a hole in the actual wire? Sorry, the picture is kind of fuzzy.

If there is a hole in it, then I'm not sure what it is.

knitdan

Was the end exposed like that or did you cut it? I can't imagine someone just leaving an exposed line in the wall if it was still live or connected to anything.

zerzhul

The brown wire? That looks like an old school antenna wire to me. Like a regular OTA antenna in an attic. It's not a great picture though so I really can't tell. It very well may be something else. Does it also run to where the satellite used to be? It could have been part of a dish turning mechanism.

Xaquin

knitdan wrote: »

Was the end exposed like that or did you cut it? I can't imagine someone just leaving an exposed line in the wall if it was still live or connected to anything.

welcome to my attic

we found two live wires .... just buried in the super dry blown in shredded cardboard 'insulation'

zerzhul

The more I look at it, the more I think it's an antenna wire. Better safe than sorry though.

kaliyama

OK, well, I got impatient after posting this (and I had touched it inadvertently already), and before I saw the responses I plugged it in. I firmed it up a little bit, and boom, cable connection to my modem. I have NO idea why the cable line came in tandem like that. For posterity, though, listen to everyone else's advice cautioning people not to touch strange wires.

zerzhul

Oh, so you meant the black wire.

Bowen

Yeah the black one is most definitely some sort of coax.

The brown one looks like some sort of 2-wire unearthed cable, maybe DC power. OTA antenna wiring typically used coax afaik. Brown doesn't really match any color code I can think of for residential wire.

Xaquin

yeah, I thought you were talking about the brown wire too

kaliyama

zerzhul wrote: »

Oh, so you meant the black wire.

No, the brown wire. The coax cable connects to nothing - it dangles off a balcony where prior tenant had a satellite dish. The brown wire is a cable line. I have no idea why a cable line looks like that.

I literally shoved the coax cable I had hooked up to my modem into the line, into the spot where there's a hole in the middle of the wiring and boom, Internet service.

zerzhul

bowen wrote: »

Yeah the black one is most definitely some sort of coax.

The brown one looks like some sort of 2-wire unearthed cable, maybe DC power. OTA antenna wiring typically used coax afaik. Brown doesn't really match any color code I can think of for residential wire.

I guess it depends on the area, but OLD OTA antennas never used coax. They used split wire cabling like this. Modern ones use coax. Just due to the crappy picture I couldn't really tell WHAT the fuck the brown wire was

Apparently it carries the cable connection, but that's a weird wire to do it. I'd be really interested in seeing a better picture of it, and how the OP connected it.

Xaquin

yeah, that's weird. especially since the coax cable should only have the single wire connection and that brown wire appears to have two.

Bowen

Only thing I can think of is some weird version of siamese cable. Maybe for two coax at one time instead of coax+power?

Noisymunk

Yeah I've seen coax doubled up like that. An old house I rented in Virginia was wired with that.

The next time you're in home depot or shopping on amazon, toss a pen-style voltage detector in your cart, they're like 10-20 bucks and I don't think any homeowner should be without one.

azith28

kaliyama wrote: »

OK, well, I got impatient after posting this (and I had touched it inadvertently already), and before I saw the responses I plugged it in. I firmed it up a little bit, and boom, cable connection to my modem. I have NO idea why the cable line came in tandem like that. For posterity, though, listen to everyone else's advice cautioning people not to touch strange wires.

Its not really a posterity thing, more of a survival thing. If you learn anything from this thread, let it be "Don't get impatient when dealing with electricity."

kaliyama

azith28 wrote: »

kaliyama wrote: »

OK, well, I got impatient after posting this (and I had touched it inadvertently already), and before I saw the responses I plugged it in. I firmed it up a little bit, and boom, cable connection to my modem. I have NO idea why the cable line came in tandem like that. For posterity, though, listen to everyone else's advice cautioning people not to touch strange wires.

Its not really a posterity thing, more of a survival thing. If you learn anything from this thread, let it be "Don't get impatient when dealing with electricity."

Agree. By posterity, I meant "anyone else reading this read, don't do what I did", for the reasons you state. I'm going to get a voltage detector soon. In my defense, the wire was in the same socket as the coax cable, and ran in exterior pipe down from the roof, so I did not think that would be a life wire. Obviously, that wouldn't keep me from getting shocked if it was a live wire, hence the voltage detector

A new, slightly better picture. Two lines, each with a hole in the middle. The one the coax cable is connected to is identical.

Bowen

Have you considered investing in a potato for picture taking?

That aside, it looks like some sort of dual coax type system you got going on there. But yeah, just because it runs weirdly and ought not to be live, doesn't mean it's not live.

I've seen live wires buried into insulation without a proper termination. In insulation.

kaliyama

bowen wrote: »

Have you considered investing in a potato for picture taking?

That aside, it looks like some sort of dual coax type system you got going on there. But yeah, just because it runs weirdly and ought not to be live, doesn't mean it's not live.

I've seen live wires buried into insulation without a proper termination. In insulation.

I thought it focused properly! Instead, it appears to have focused on the scissors. Thanks steve jobs.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Nope, even the scissors are blurry.

In fact, not a single part of that photo is focused correctly.