BlankHi All
I recently took some 75 foot sections RG-8X coax off of a pair of 40 meter
verticals and found the center and shield was all black. I mentioned it
here and some said it was from water ingress.
I was playing with these pieces of coax yesterday and found that if I cut 5
feet off the antenna end, the shield was nice and bright, but the center
conductor was all black.
I took the coax fittings off at the shack end and found the same thing--the
shield was nice and shiny, but the center conductor was all black, so there
is no way it could be from water. Also, the antennas are lower than the
house so the water couldn't run up hill through the bulkhead to the antenna
switch. The connectors are Amphenol.
The center conductor is stranded, and each strand is all black. I would
assume that the wires are all insulated from each other due to the
discoloration. It almost looks like the wire got hot, but I only run 500
watts into matched antennas, so the SWR shouldn't be a factor.
What, besides water, would turn the center conductors black? 73
Tom W7WHY
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