[Towertalk] Aircraft Cable

[Stan & Patricia Griffiths]

I just happen to have one of the expensive crimpers that looks like a bolt
cutter.  Yep, it was about $150 and was 25 years ago.

One of the things that the seller of the fittings showed me was a
cut-in-half crimp on a piece of cable.  Part of the copper from the fitting
was actually pressed right in between the fine strands of the 7X19 cable
which won't happen with EHS because there are no fine strands in EHS.  I am
sure this is why you need more than one fitting for EHS.  I asked if soft
copper was really a strong enough metal to do this job and the seller told
me that the process of doing the crimping "work-hardened" the copper so it
was not soft after installation . . .

Stan
w7ni@easystreet.com

----- Original Message -----
From: <KI7WX@aol.com>
To: <w7ni@easystreet.com>
Cc: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Towertalk] Aircraft Cable


> >Well . . . IF you do what the manufacturer says,
> >you never use Nicopress fittings on EHS
>
> Heh, cute... I don't have a dog in this race because I use preforms to
terminate both my EHS and Philly guys. Just happened to recall W0UN's post.
>
> With that, Nicopress fittings are well established in terminating all
sorts of cables. I marvel at the ones the size of my head that are used on
2" cables on cranes and other heavy machinery. Nicopress clearly states in
their literature that their fittings can be used to terminate many different
types of wire.
>
> The manufacturer's directions in this case are simply to destruction test
if using a wire other than what they have provided data for. So long before
Steve had coined the LCX Prime-Directive, John was well ahead of everyone
and using good common sense to fully understand a system before implementing
it.
>
> What I would worry about with Nicopress type fittings in the field is that
the average guy might not achieve the proper crimp using hand tools. Knowing
how cheap hams are, guys will probably not spring the $150 bucks for the big
hand crimper and will try to get away with using the $25 swaging device and
a 6" adjustable.
>
> YMMV
>
> Mark
> KI7WX
>