[UK-CONTEST] Cables

[Ken Eastty]

>
> Ken,
>
> I wish RFS cables were half the price of Andrews.  Sadly they are
> competing in the same market and have more or less equivalent cables so
> the new price is very similar.

>John G3UUT

John,

I bought (not for my own use!) several km's of RSF cable a few years ago
after a colleague pointed out that it was much cheaper then than the
equivalent Andrew product (there wasn't any discount for quantity), perhaps
they've changed their prices. When I've peered through the fences (anorak
on) of Cellular installations most of the ones that I've seen seem to use
RFS as opposed to Andrew cable.
Hopefully with the amount of drum ends of hard line that seem to be around
no one should have to buy short lengths of these cables at new prices, I
wouldn't expect to pay more than the cost of RG213, however connectors might
be another matter.


>I am going open wire feeder on all my HF aerials. Adrian MW1LCR

Adrian,

I don't recommend using open-wire feeder other than on very short runs.
Unless the line is really well balanced there's a problem with interference
pick up on receive and the characteristics of the line can change
dramatically with environmental conditions. In some cases especially at the
high end of the HF range when insulators are contaminated the loss can equal
that of co-ax like LDF 4-50. At least with co-ax the loss is constant
regardless of the environment and can be overcome (on receive) with suitable
pre-amplifiers. There are also maintenance aspects to be considered when
using open-wire feeders which perhaps aren't so important in the amateur
environment and of course with a high power broadcast station the cost of
co-ax for high power use has got be a consideration. Many years ago when
copper was perhaps cheaper than it is today GPO HF radio stations built
pre-1940 used co-ax feeders made of copper tube at both transmitting &
receiving stations.

>You forgot Westflex 103.

>Nigel G0VDZ

Maybe best forgotten, I don't like the few thin stands of copper braid over
copper foil, this in my experience doesn't make for easy termination onto an
N Type connector (no one doing a proper job would  use a 259's would they?)

73...

Ken

G3LVP






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