[TowerTalk] Andrew FSJ4-50 issues
Jim Thomson
jim.thom at telus.net
Sat Jan 16 08:57:06 EST 2016
A buddy is having issues with his Andrew FSJ4-50 flexible coax. It’s being used on a rotating tower.
He used FSJ4-50 from each yagi to the tower, then spliced ( via a male to female 7-16 din) into
more FSJ4-50 heading down the tower. At the bottom of the rotating tower is the remote switch box.
On the 40m coax connector, at the remote switch box, there is water coming out of it ! The splice
was encased in heat shrink, with the glue glop inside. Also at each balun.
We think the cable coming down the tower is toast. Is this FSJ4-50 intended to be used outdoors ??
I looked at some old postings from 2006, and it appears that FSJ4-50 was to be used indoors only, for
jumpers etc. The other postings indicated it did not have any UV protection on the outer jacket.
I THINK I also read somewhere a long time ago that FSJ4-50 was prone to water ingress.
Does anybody know the real story on this stuff ? It can be replaced with the rigid andrew 1/2
inch regular heliax. It doesn’t have to flex for this application....on a rotating tower. At the base
of the tower, where the remote switch box is, there is a single, flexible piece of coax, used
for rotating the tower, like 213-U...then the 213-U is spliced into more (normal rigid) 1/2 inch heliax,
and off to the shack area.
The concern here is... if FSJ4-50 is pone to water ingress, then he may well be in for more problems,
since all the coax runs down the tower are also FSJ4-50
Thanks in advance.... Jim VE7RF
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