I've never been impressed with the jacket material used in LMR-400UF. Seems
way too soft, amd I think it either softens or gets brittle over time. Or
both. If the cable flexes at all, it's easy for the jacket to work loose
from the PL-259 threads, which eliminates the primary strain relief for the
shield braid behind the solder holes.
I like Bury-Flex much better.
73, Dick WC1M
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roger (K8RI) [mailto:K8RI-on-TowerTalk@tm.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 9:29 PM
> Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Coax aging
>
> I spent a couple hours on the tower this evening. The goal was to move
> one of the pulleys on top to the NW corner of the tower, install a
> second one at the NE corner, and then take down all the LMR 400 in
> preparation for installing the LMR-600. The last LMR 400 and LMR 400
> Ultra Flex was installed July 29, 2001 or just over 7 years. The
> pigtails are still up there.
>
> The good surprise was was every piece of tape used to hold 5 runs of
> coax in place was still good although there were a couple of pieces
> that
> looked like they'd been sand blasted. The not so good was the LMR 400
> Ultra Flex. After just 7 to 8 years it was all bad. Some of it had
> cracks 3 to 4 inches long in places where it wasn't even flexing below
> the top of the tower. I haven't had a chance to look at the coils to
> see what shape the part that was flexing regularly is in.
>
> However after seeing the lower section of what's up there I'm going to
> order some Davis BuryFlex for the new pigtails. Now I have two coils
> of
> LMR-600 UF (115' and 130') that probably aren't going up there. It'll
> be interesting to see if any moisture made it past the connectors and
> into the regular LMR-400.
>
>
> Roger (K8RI)
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