Topband: COAX CABLE

[Bill and Liz McHugh]

I'm surprised that many posters are using RG-6 for really long runs of cable to RX antennas.  I discovered about 4 years ago that the cable TV companies no longer use hardline-everything in the cities has apparently gone fibre optic.  In many cases, the companies have reels and reels of both direct burial flooded hardline and unjacketed Aluminflex or similar for overhead runs.  As there is no market for all this cable in my area, the only option is recycling, and because it is not pure copper or pure aluminum the cable is considered "dirty wire" and fetches something like $.20 per lb.

I obtained a reel of each-1600 ft of flooded and 2200 ft of the other type.  At some 375 lbs per spool, the total cost was a bit more than buying 1000 ft of good RG-6 and some connectors, and the loss is infinitely better.  In addition, critters don't try to chew on it and if something happens to break the line a splice is easy to make.

Connectors?  What connectors?  I mate the hardline with a short chunk of RG-6 by soldering the centre conductors and using a SS cable clamp to attach the shields.  An upside-down plastic bottle is the weatherproofing (thank VE1ZZ for these ideas).  At 1.8 mhz there is no mismatch measureable nor is the loss on my three 600 ft runs of any consequence.

Bill VE3CSK/VE3NH