[TowerTalk] Introduction
Jim Thomson
jim.thom at telus.net
Sun Feb 5 08:40:28 EST 2017
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2017 20:54:31 -0500
From: Steve Maki <lists at oakcom.org>
To: towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Introduction
Gary-Joe,
I'd say 99.5% of the installed 50 ohm hardline base (by footage) is
copper. Commscope tried their darndest to introduce their smoothwall
hardline (both copper and aluminum) to the cellular industry, but it
never caught on. One reason was that when you cut away the jacket to
install a ground kit, smoothwall cable becomes very fragile - not so
with corrugated.
Commscope eventually gave up on that and purchased Andrew.
Of course smoothwall 75 ohm was always the standard in the cable TV
game, where they never needed to remove jacket except at the connectors.
-Steve K8LX
## RFS USED to make both .875 + also 1.125 heliax, with a corrugated
aluminum outer shield, and a corrugated copper center conductor. It was
all the rage at the time with cell companies in asia and europe. It was
a lot more flexible than normal .875 heliax, with its copper tube center
conductor. The RFS product was cheap to buy, and was flexible, and was
a lot lighter per foot. It took normal 7-16 Dins.
## The best you can get now for flexible heliax in both .875 and also 1.125 is
corrugated cu shield and corrugated copper center conductor. Its heavier and more
expensive than its AL shield version. But at least its a lot easier to work with vs any heliax
with a copper tube center.
## I use LMR-1200DB, which is an absolute bitch to work with, about as flexible
as an AL baseball bat. I dont recommend it... unless you got a really good deal on it.
Jim VE7RF
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