[TowerTalk] poor man's substitute for LMR-400?

[Jim Brown]

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 11:29:03 -0500, Dave N RQ wrote:

>Anyone have knowledge of CommScope coax, made in USA?

There was a HUGE warehouse full of several versions of this stuff, left over from bankruptcy 
of a major ISP/cell phone company.  One of my ham buddies found it and visited it last fall, 
and bought a couple of dozen 1,000 ft spools. 

I have two 1,000 foot spoinols of 3227, which is black, #10 solid copper, tinned copper 
braid, foil, foam dielectric, black PE jacket. Specs say it is OK for direct burial, and 
performance peaks 500 MHz - 1.5 GHz. I wouldn't call it "poor man's" anything -- this is 
good stuff. It is not intended for portable use or for anything that will be flexed in use.  I 
believe the jacket is OK for UV, but I'm not sure.  The cable is a bit loose in a PL259. 

Commscope is a well respected US cable vendor, and was a spinoff from a major old line 
telco. I've visited their booth at trade shows and been impressed with those who manned it 
(and I'm not easily impressed). This cable is cheap because it's from a bankruptcy, not 
because it's in any way inferior.  If this is something that you could use within ten years or 
so, it's a steal. 

Jim Brown  K9YC