Coaxial Cable Installation, the Dummy Version

Coaxial cable bushing

We may be biased, but we're pretty much convinced that the stupidest "celebrity" ever on American television is Larry the Cable Guy – then again, none of us watches reality TV, so what do we know? All that's by way of introduction for today's DotD nominee, an eHowian type who makes Larry look... well, average or so. This time our honoree's one Sue Stepp, a self-proclaimed "artist, teacher, writer and farmer." After reading through her eHow.com instructions for "How to Run a Coax Cable Through a Wall,"¹ we knew pretty well why this freelancer never claimed to be a cable guy (or gal).

Stepp needed about 700 words to "explain" the procedure, which in reality should have taken perhaps eighty. She even managed to go into excruciating detail about "Running Coax Though The Wall to Another Wall Under The House," a task that we suspect would be quite difficult for the 50% or so of homeowners whose house is on a slab... But let's let Sue tell it in her own words:

"Coax cable is used for satellite TV, cable TV, attaching antennas to televisions or adding another connection to a room."

Never mind the non-parallel construction, just WTF does "adding another connection to a room" mean to Stepp. anyway? Wouldn't "adding a connection in another room" make more sense? And just what is so special about coax, anyway? We found it odd -- or should we say unsurprising -- that Stepp only uses the word "coaxial" in reference to a "coaxial box plate" (which she thinks goes on top of a "clip-in electrical box" -- not, as people who know what they're talking about recommend, a low-voltage box... But we think that for all Sue's blathering, she missed the point; something the more unprepared eHow contributors do quite often. The OQ did not ask how to run coaxial cable to a new location, and the OQ didn't ask how to install a coaxial cable connector on a wall. The OQ asked how to "run the cable through the wall" -- which, in our opinion, means just that: run a cable from one side of a wall to the other. And as far as we're concerned that means

1. Drill a hole large enough for a cable bushing through the wall. Yeah, yeah, make certain there's no plumbing or wiring in the way (though not what Stepp calls a "beam")
2. Thread a coax cable bushing onto the cable.
3. Push the cable through the hole drilled in step 1 and slip the bushing into the drywall
4. Thread a bushing onto the cable on the other side of the wall and slip the bushing into the drywall
5. Add the necessary fitting to the naked end of the cable

There: wasn't that simple? Just 80-some words, and no crawling around under the house or adding connector plates. That's because our cable guys, unlike Stepp, aren't candidates for Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was    ehow.com/how_7589910_run-coax-cable-through-wall.html

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