[TowerTalk] Replacing RG-213 and Rotor Cable

[Jim Brown]

On Tue, 7 Sep 2010 07:33:47 EDT, K7LXC at aol.com wrote:

>The  coax and 
>rotor cable were put up new in 1999. I figure that they are probably  in need 
>of replacement by now. 


>  Why are you changing them? You didn't cite a single problem.  If they're 
>working okay (e.g. swr is fine, rotator works), I don't see any  reason to 
>change them. It'd be a waste of time and money. Both cables have  service 
>lifes of a couple of decades or more. 

I agree with Steve, K7LXC. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

Last year, I helped pull down and dispose of N6RZ's antenna farm, which 
included LOTS of coax, virtually all of it at least 20 years old. It LOOKS 
pretty weathered, but it MEASURES just fine. I took some of it to a meeting of 
our contest club to auction off, and everyone turned their noses up at it. So 
I brought it back home and used the short lengths to build stubs. They all 
measured just like brand new coax. 

There were also longer lengths of big coax (RG17, etc.) and some LDF4 and 
LDF5. That stuff also measures just fine, and is feeding my SteppIR and a 40M 
wire Yagi. 

73, Jim K9YC