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Re: [TowerTalk] RG-402 wound on FT-240 core

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] RG-402 wound on FT-240 core
From: "Lux, Jim" <jim@luxfamily.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2021 12:28:16 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 3/18/21 11:36 AM, Michael Tope wrote:
When using the solder-soaked braided coax, bear in mind that it if you flex it enough the solder starts to crack. Often you'll see the solder first crack in the area where the shield intercepts the connector body. If you are going to form a choke and leave it alone, that probably won't be an issue. I don't have any experience using coax like this in an outdoor environment, so I would be hesitant to wrap it around a stack of toroids and then hang from the feedpoint of an antenna without some sort of enclosure to protect it from the environment (and to provide mechanical strain relief for the connectors). YMMV.

73, Mike W4EF...............

Very much agree.  The handforming is nice, but if it's jacketed, it can crack and you can't see the crack. In fact, you can't see the cracks sometime in the unjacketed stuff.

Bend radius will also be an issue.  Those popular 2.4" cores are about 1/2" on a side cross section.  The minimum bend radius for the handformable stuff is 0.6 inches, so the "turn" would be 1.2" in diameter.

Unless you happen to have a big heap of the stuff sitting around, I can't really see the advantage over using a flexible coax, other than it "looks cool".  And just like chromed tail pipe extensions, they DO make the car go a little bit faster, don't they?






On 3/18/2021 9:19 AM, Byron Tatum wrote:
Just a note --    The actual semi-rigid cable (silver plated copper tubing outer conductor 0.141" OD) that is being discussed RG-402 has an equivalent in a "conformable" cable. This conformable cable is the same construction except instead of solid copper tubing outer conductor it has a solder-soaked braid. Easier to work with and same electrical properties. Huber-Suhner produces one called "Sucoform" and another called "Sucoflex". I use the RG-401 size (0.250") for making short jumpers in my VHF/UHF station, using the same connectors made for RG-401 semi-rigid. These connectors are easy to find and not expensive, if you dig around a little. This 0.250" cable has very high power handling ratings at VHF/UHF.   There is a Chinese supplier of conformable cables on eBay. You can get both of these sizes with or without a jacket. The Huber-Suhner cable Sucoform has no jacket.Just some limited information from my experience,Byron W5FH
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