[TowerTalk] Heliax question

[Jeff DePolo]

> I never saw 7/8" Heliax or Cellflex with solid inner conductor.

Several older 7/8" Heliax-type cables had solid center conductors, with Cablewave probably being the most common back in the 70's.  I still have connectors for it if that's what it turns out to be.  Rather than a thread-in or push-in center conductor contact as used with the tubular center conductor on modern 7/8 cables, it had a center conductor assembly that made contact with the outside of the center conductor.  Cleaning the dielectric off the center conductor properly to prep for this type of connector wasn't fun.  Unlike modern 7/8" cables, the shield and center conductor weren't cut off flush with each other, the center had to protrude by maybe 3/8" (it's been a while, don't quote me on that).

There was also a lot of Prodelin 7/8" cable that floated around on the surplus market in the 1980's.  It, too, had a solid center conductor.  It had, by far, the toughest outer jacket of any Heliax-style cable I've ever had the displeasure of working with.  It was bonded to the shield and tough as hell.  

To help identify what you have, a few more questions:

1.  Is the outer conductor corrugation helical ("spiral") or annular ("rings")?

2.  What is the measured OD of the outer conductor at the peaks?

3.  What is the measured OD of the inner conductor?

4.  Is the inner conductor solid copper or copper-clad aluminum?

5.  Confirming - the outer conductor is copper, not aluminum,correct?

					--- Jeff WN3A