Wilby -

I can't claim any useful knowledge about the newer cables; but I was curious enough to do a bit of searching.

I found a number of sites claiming that while the RG6 specification defines electrical/signal properties fairly well, it leaves the actual cable construction fairly vague.

Several sites complained that especially since the appearance of double-shielded RG6, many cables from different manufacturers needed special connectors made only by the same manufacturer who made the cable.

The market has apparently "stabilized" the products, so that it is now claimed that a new "universal connector" should work with any RG6 cable; but there were a number of complaints that objected to that belief. The new universal cable apparently accommodates a double-shield automatically(?).

A few commentors asserted that the old connectors were perfectly satisfactory for any RG6 cable, but all such comments ended with "but only if you're a genius like me."

Unfortunately I didn't find consistent enough descriptions of the old versus new-universal connectors to make notes, but my vague recollection is that some may have called them "Type F" vs "Type D." If those don't work, you can try the rest of the alphabet, I suppose.

Based on my (superficial) research, you quite probably used one of the "non-preferred" connectors on your new cable assembly; but experienced an "accidental stroke of genius" akin to the claims of the posters I found on some of those sites when you reassembled the connector after trying the open-shield connection. (Two more miracles and we can begin your confirmation as a saint?)

After my (superficial) search, I can emphatically agree with the implied opinion in your opening post that there is a near total absence of persons capable of writing - especially about simple things - intelligibly. Since Microsoft recently shows irrefutable evidence of trying to hire as many idiots as possible, there might be some hope that they might deplete the density of illiterates writing "technical stuff" (other than at Microsoft) on the web; but I'm not optimistic since the shallow end of the gene pool seems so much more fertile than the rest.

I think I'll look for pre-molded cables - maybe with splice connectors if necessary - for my next improvement(?). Since the useful part of my property isn't much more than 9 meters wide I should face fewer difficulties than you've had(?).

John