[TowerTalk] RG179 preparation

[Jim Brown]

Hi Tony,

I've not used any of the coax this size, but I have stripped the jacket 
many times using a classic electrician's stripping tool like the Klein 
Tools 1000. One thing I learned, for example, is to cut the jacket using 
the stripping tool's #14 notch, but use the #12 notch to pull the jacket 
off. This simple technique prevents the tool from grabbing and damaging 
strands of the shield.

A few days ago, after K1XX posted comments about the difficulty of 
stripping the center without nicking strands of it, I tried using the 
stripping tool to do that. It worked fine -- looking at the result with 
a magnifier, it appears to be very clean, with no "nicks."

Another observation -- in general, teflon jackets are pretty easy to 
strip with a razor blade. With the larger RG400 (about the same o.d. as 
RG58), I nick around the outer jacket at the point where I want the 
exposed shield end, then cut longitudinally toward the end of the cable. 
The nature of these teflon jackets is such that it doesn't take much of 
a nick for the jacket to peel away.  All of this can require some practice.

Because of the physical delicacy of the cable due to its small size, 
it's clear that some very careful form of strain relief will be 
required. And I have no idea about available connectors.

73, Jim K9YC

On 2/24/2019 10:00 AM, tony.kaz at verizon.net wrote:
> Someone had sent me an email about the problems of trimming  and preparing
> RG179. I lost that email. Could that person resend the email please? I have
> several chokes to make with RG179. One end crimped and the other end
> soldered. Looking for tips with RG179.