While hunting for TV cables with a trencher we bagged our limit. unbeknownst to us there were 2 cables (1 old and 1 new) and of course we located the old one first. The new one we cut is a lovely orange color and appears to be a solid wire cable. Is this something that mere mortals can splice together or is it special cable made by Tibetan Monks sworn to secrecy. If we can’t do it ourselves are there outside companies that do it? If the cable company gets involved do we have to mortgage children to pay for it?
splicing tv cable would neither be durable or give quality results.
after the cable company replaces it take some measurements and some notes, or even a photo.
in many locations in the USA utilities will mark underground wires and pipes for no cost with half a week to a week notice.
And you can’t figure out how it fix it with three straight pins, Saran wrap, and a box of Jell-o?
What kind of Magiver are you, anyway?!??
It’s MacGyver. 
Besides, everyone knows you don’t use gelatin on wiring.
That’s what celery is for.
Whoosh
It was marked by the utility company. We found “THE” wire only to discover that there were 2 of them and we cut the new one.
If you had a JULIE, USA or whatever an underground utility search is called in your area, and the cable you dug out wasn’t marked, you should be in the clear. Generally, if the locator service didn’t ah, locate it, they’re on the hook for repair costs.
OTOH, if they’d marked a cable in close proximity to the one you snagged, you may be responsible for the repair.
Usually a utility will mark their lines +/- 2ft. You need to hand dig within these limits.
Was the cable in a conduit or direct buried?
As for the cost, it’s mostly labor. Maybe 2-4 hours at $50 per hour - that would be a reasonable estimate, not knowing the details.
Yup, that’s a modern direct-burial TV cable.
It can be spliced - it needs to have 2 F connectors (one on each end) and a barrel connector installed. But (very important) it needs to have a heat-shrink tube of the appropriate size and rated for underground use installed. When shrunk, these will ooze a goop that seals the connection in a watertight manner.
If you were in my city, I’d come over and do it for free. Since you’re not, you may as well call the cable company. They may charge you for it - consider it a learning experience and be glad it wasn’t a power feeder.
If you back-fill the trench yourself when done, be careful to not drop any rocks on the cable - if you nick the jacket, water will get in and cause incredibly-difficult-to-diagnose problems (well, without a TDR which most cable guys don’t have) in the future.
This is a good way to introduce 10dB of loss for no good reason.
Orange sometimes denotes fiber optic cables.
Yes, but that would be on an interior-rated cable, not suitable for direct burial. An outdoor fiber cable would have a black jacket, and a combined indoor/outdoor cable (which is just outdoor cable with a non-flammable filler instead of icky pic) would be black with either a yellow (single mode), orange (multi-mode 62.5) or aqua (multi-mode 50) stripe.
Regarding the prior post about 10dB insertion loss, it won’t be anything close to that. A Digicon DS-6 (which is almost certianly what the cable company will use) has an insertion loss of 0.3dB or less to 1GHz (see PDF here) and here is a PDF catalog that has barrels with an insertion loss of 0.05dB (or 0.1dB if you buy the cheap ones).
Well, it’s been a day since this post. Have any neighbors lost service and called the cable company?
If not, then maybe you lucked out and didn’t cut an active line.
In the OP, it sounds like he cut the cable coming across his yard to the house. That would be an individual drop for him only, so it won’t affect any of the neighbors.
Yup - any decent cable company will be using hard line for the trunk that runs down the block. The larger feeders back to their central distribution site may also be hard line or they could be fiber.
In NY a overhead outside line is sometimes/often solid orange, I’m not sure about u/g lines.
a trencher was used, that would sever hard line.
That’s odd. Orange denotes multi-mode fiber which doesn’t work very well at high speeds over long distances.
For example, Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base SX) is only rated for 220 meters on 62.5 (orange) fiber. Though you can break the rules and have it work for longer distances. But anything over 1 KM is pushing it.
On the other hand, single-mode is essentially limited by how much optical power you can throw into the cable. With good enough lasers, you can get from New York City to Boston at multi-gigabit speeds.
It is common to put a protective sleeve over the actual fiber cable if part of the run is in conduit. That generally continues up the phone pole and a foot or two away from the pole when the cable transitions to aerial. This jacket is commonly orange.
The reason most outdoor cables are black is because carbon or other coloring agents are added to improve sunlight resistance. White cable ties will become yellow and brittle after a few months in the sun, for example.
True. But since the OP said it was orange, it wasn’t hard line. Thus it was not a feeder serving multiple customers.
Update. Since we located the old cable and only one was specified they came out and fixed it for free. They used a splice with water tight fittings and then encased it with plastic cases filled with a gel.
Thanks to all for your input.
FYI, the cable used was RG6 quad which was not what the company normally used.