<I gave up on the Ultra flex (UF) after seen what it looked like after
just 6 years out in the weather here in Central Michigan. The jacket on
every pigtail was split leaving the braid/shield open to the elements.
OTOH I use and have used a lot of LMR-400 and 600 >.
Hi John, Times LMR 400 UF uses a TPE (thermoplastic Elastomer)outer jacket
vs. the PE (polyeth.) jacket on LMR 400. The TPE assists in the flexibility;
however, as you have noted, the life of TPE outdoors is poor. Bury-Flex is
only slightly less flexible mainly because it uses a PE outer jacket, which is
impervious to UV, also has no plasticizers that will migrate into the
dielectric causing havoc. The PE grade that we use in Bury-Flex production is
good for 25-30 years of outdoor service. Lastly, Bury-Flex is noticeably less
expensive vs. 400 UF.
Bottom line, in my opinion, there is no reason to be using 400 UF, except
perhaps at freq's higher than 3 GHz.
Bury-Flex has been an extremely popular item with hams, as well as used by
entities such as Lockheed-Northrop, NASA, FAA, SPAWAR, etc.
Please check with us for any purchases of LMR, Heliax, and many other cable
and wire, RF conn's, etc . that we offer at very competitive pricing. Tnx
to Roger for his comments and Bury-Flex support.
If I can ever be of any help, feel free.
73, Steve , K1PEK,
DAVIS RF Co. , Div. of Orion Wire Co., Inc.
Wire, Cable, RF Connectors and wire aerial parts. LMR, Heliax, Eupen
Commercial / Military / & Custom Cable Design
tel: 978-369-1738 Fax: 978-369-3484
www.DavisRF.com
Message: 4
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:53:20 -0400
From: "Roger (K8RI)" <K8RI-on-TowerTalk@tm.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Bury-Flex
To: k5xa@godfather-ridge.com
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Message-ID: <490967F0.7010402@tm.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
John K5XA wrote:
> Howdy from Kerrville, Texas.
>
> I'm about ready to order coax. I'm putting my station back together, and
> have been using a combination of Andrews Heliax and LMR-400 Ultra-Flex.
> I gave up on the Ultra flex (UF) after seen what it looked like after
just 6 years out in the weather here in Central Michigan. The jacket on
every pigtail was split leaving the braid/shield open to the elements.
OTOH I use and have used a lot of LMR-400 and 600.
> I'm happy with the LMR-400, but the 1000 foot spool I've been using was one
> I bought several years ago in a group purchase, for considerably less than
> today's prices. So I'm considering Davis Bury-Flex as an alternative to
> another order of LMR-400.
>
I typically purchase most coax 1000 ft at a time if starting a project.
I only purchased 250 ft of Bury-flex to use for pigtails as I don't see
a big need coming up for a lot of the smaller coax. LMR-400 is
available for slightly less than Bury-flex at a few places, but we're
only talking a couple of cents and I don't remember how many feet you'd
need for the price, plus it's approaching 4:00 AM so I don't have the
ambition to look it up either.
Bury-flex has a very tough jacket and is quite flexible although not
quite as flexible as the LMR-400UF cables.
A couple weeks ago I cut up and put connectors on 250 feet to make up a
bunch of cables for "go kits". Now I have the pigtails for my beams and
feed lines from the remote switches to sloping dipoles.
> Do any of you have any experience with the Bury-Flex - pro or con?
>
>
I like it...So far no complaints.
73
Roger (K8RI)
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