[TowerTalk] Can 1/4" or 3/8" Andrew SUPERFLEX be used for a Rotor loop?

[Steve Maki]

On 07/17/20 8:50 AM, jimlux wrote:
>> Did anyone look at the M&P ( Italy) site ?
>>
>> I've been involved for 20+ years with several divisions of what was 
>> CDT ( Mohawk, Montrose, West Penn Wire  etc) now merged into Belden 
>> Corp. Observed many braiding & bunching machines in operation.  I 
>> always understood that many of the best fabricating machines in the 
>> wire industry were made in Italy.  I drew a conclusion that coax form 
>> ITALY very well could be the best. That said , I watched several coax 
>> connector assembly videos provided BY M&P , and was surprised to see 
>> they suggest you do NOT solder the shield on either N type for PL-259. 
>> They must believe that the compression is adequate.  Why do I think 
>> that could be a warming while running that EXPERT KW ??????

> I think there's ample info out there that says that compression 
> connections (if properly made) are far superior to soldered connections. 
> The challenge is the "properly made" - I've not done big 1/2" coax, just 
> RG-58, microwave semi-rigid and regular old stranded wire. For all of 
> those, if you have the right tool, it's easy to make a good compression 
> connection that is gas tight, stands up to temperature cycling and 
> vibration, etc. I would imagine that the bigger connectors and cables 
> are the same.
> 
> However, it requires tooling specifically for your application, it isn't 
> necessarily cheap, and so forth.  If you're doing a few connectorsa 
> month or year, as a hobby, it's hard to justify several hundred bucks 
> for a set of tools to cover all connectors and cable sizes.  I think 
> that's where soldering has its place (or ordering premade cables!)
> 
> When I was making dozens of cables in a day - it was easily worth the 
> money, especially for the RG58 BNCs for Thin Ethernet. Spin the stripper 
> around the cable, load the ferrule and connector, crimp, done. If it 
> took 30 seconds it was probably because I was distracted.  Same if 
> you're doing F connectors on RG-6 or RG-59.  There's no way I could have 
> soldered on a connector that fast, especially if I had to wait for the 
> iron to heat. And, in any case, that horrible polyethylene dielectric 
> would have melted.
> _______________________________________________

One needs to differentiate between crimp connectors and compression 
connectors.

The true compression connectors are considered the most reliable. They 
are available for most common cable types, but not all connector types.

They are widely used on
1) CATV RG59, RG6, RG11 (F connectors)
2) Braided, solid center conductor cable (LMR-195-240-400) (N, 7-16 DIN)
3) Heliax style cable, all sizes, both regular & superflex style (N, 
7-16 DIN, 4.3-10 DIN)

Compression connectors have excellent strain relief & weatherproofing 
properties.

Crimp connectors work very well, but with those I pay particular 
attention to strain relief by using at least two layers of heatshrink 
with staggered lengths.

-Steve K8LX