coax

[jazzsinger]

I don't buy anything from Knights any more. He sells nowt but shite and I wouldn't trust the ones he sells to be the proper thing. I bought them mail order from Mouser.com, shipped direct from the USA. Took about a week to arrive.



Those I posted the image of were bought for RG58 patch leads. What I'm using on the main run to the antenna etc is the 83-1SPs I ordered at the same time on the RG213, and they are silver plate as you said and its a dream soldering the case to the braid in the four holes. Won't be using anything else.

Can't go wrong with 83-1sp, but 83-822 are better, ptfe dielectric, not much price difference try mouser uk

if your ever looking for them and can't find them, search amphenol's website they have a parts inventory of all stockists , need to get some more myself, as got 100m of belden rg223 for 85 quid last night, apparently the MOD has no need for it, as RS charge 264,46 ex vat for it, well pleased

 

[jazzsinger]

would be better using 83-1sp or 82-822 with ug175 reducer than those, they really are for emergencies, or westlakes sells ps gland ones, thats where i got greenpar ones, one day i'll dig them out and post pic of them, top quality,

rg223 is dual silver plated braids and silver plated conductor, add amphenol plugs or any decent silver plated one and silver solder, jobs a good un, i always pre tin shield before soldering, makes the joint perfect

 

[wavrider]

LMR Times 400 is made in America using the most copper of any cable I've ever used. Do your research. When all is said and done you will clearly see why it cost what it does. You get what you pay for. Be carfulll as there are sellers advertising like LMR but it's mot the real thing. I purchased mine one eBay from saigmaiden. Thay are honest sellers and sell the real thing.

The center conductor at 27 mhz really does not make much difference.

The skin effect at this frequency.

The RF is on the outside of the conductor, it does not pass through the conductor.:headbang

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

The center conductor at 27 mhz really does not make much difference.

The skin effect at this frequency.

The RF is on the outside of the conductor, it does not pass through the conductor.:headbang

Correct. Even very high quality heliax cable has a copper plated aluminum center conductor. It reduces weight and cost yet maintains extremely low loss characteristics.

 

[M0GVZ]

Can't go wrong with 83-1sp, but 83-822 are better, ptfe dielectric, not much price difference try mouser uk

if your ever looking for them and can't find them, search amphenol's website they have a parts inventory of all stockists , need to get some more myself, as got 100m of belden rg223 for 85 quid last night, apparently the MOD has no need for it, as RS charge 264,46 ex vat for it, well pleased

Thanks for the heads up. I did order from Mouser UK but they sent it from the USA, arriving from Fedex with a customs declaration on

Not complaining, still arrived quicker than ordering from W&S.

Even very high quality heliax cable has a copper plated aluminum center conductor.

None of the stuff my mate has for his commercial tower is. Its all copper. Then again Orange (as in the mobile phone network) ran all the feeders up it as part of the deal for going on the site.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Thanks for the heads up. I did order from Mouser UK but they sent it from the USA, arriving from Fedex with a customs declaration on

Not complaining, still arrived quicker than ordering from W&S.



None of the stuff my mate has for his commercial tower is. Its all copper. Then again Orange (as in the mobile phone network) ran all the feeders up it as part of the deal for going on the site.

The larger stuff is all copper because the center is hollow. LDF4 which is 1/2 inch heliax and all any normal amateur or CBer will ever use except for a few that use LDF5 for UHF or SHF stuff, has a copper clad inner conductor to reduce weight.


LDF4

LDF5

Even bigger heliax

 

[dave457]

I think lmr600 would be a cheaper alternative money wise than ldf4

 

[M0GVZ]

The larger stuff is all copper because the center is hollow. LDF4 which is 1/2 inch heliax and all any normal amateur or CBer will ever use except for a few that use LDF5 for UHF or SHF stuff, has a copper clad inner conductor to reduce weight.

Thanks for the pictures. He doesn't have anything that small. It must be the LDF 5 thats the smallest he has at roughly an inch. Keeps offering me a 60ft offcut to use on my dualbander but I use that so regularly it must be before Xmas the last time I turned it on.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

LDF5 is commonly called 7/8 inch while LDF4 is 1/2 inch heliax.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I think lmr600 would be a cheaper alternative money wise than ldf4

Almost anything is a cheaper alternative to LDF4. Nobody needs LDF4 or better for CB and few amateurs use it other than on VHF and above. I have several runs of it for HF, 6m, and 2m but I got it free when a couple sites were decommissioned so it actually would have cost me more to buy cheap coax.

 

[222DBFL]

I wouldn't buy it either, but hey if it's free it's for me!! Perks of the job I guess.

 

[jazzsinger]

Thanks for the pictures. He doesn't have anything that small. It must be the LDF 5 thats the smallest he has at roughly an inch. Keeps offering me a 60ft offcut to use on my dualbander but I use that so regularly it must be before Xmas the last time I turned it on.

I'd take those offcuts in a second, heliax is fantastic if you can afford it, but free its just fucking dynamite.Especially for 2M,70Cm and pmr 446. If you don't want them send me them , I'll put it on my PMR setup. On long runs at hf its unbeatable too. I ain't overly hung up on cable losses, but i am on quality shielding and quality sheathing, which for me is the most important aspect of any coaxial cable. shielding reduces noise pickup and a NCV good jacket/sheath resists UV damage making it last years if sealed up properly.

Talking of which as i was typing this the door went, my recent e bay purchase of nos,Belden rg223, well pleased As rohs compliant means it can't be more than 7 years old, excess military stock, has proper M17/84 marking, cost me 75 quid plus 9.50 p+p, has RS Components part number on it,521-7944, costs now £264,46 exc vat, which at 20% is over 300 quid, now thats what i call bargain hunting

real M17/84 cable is rarer than rocking horse shit here due to cost of copper going through roof, main reason many cables are copper plated and take advantage of skin effect,

this stuff is copper plated with silver and two copper silver plated braids, you ought to feel the weight in a 100m drum as opposed to 100m drum of nasty chinese rg58 or mini 8

a steal at that price for real Belden Mil Spec cable, used to cost 2 quid a metre here and not even sure it was mil spec, i know this shit is, no cb shops in the uk sell it, and only 1 or 2 ham stockists do, but whether its real or not i couldn't say, but this shit is the real deal, boy do i love to see M17 or mil-c-17 on a RF cable, you just know it will be reliable. just waiting on a roll of mil-c-17 rg58 c/u coming too, proper mil spec too, if it ain't good enough for Uncle Sam, it ain't going on any of my antennas

A few weeks back i got a professional install drum of QED 16/2 LSZH at 85 quid too, when you take into account thats about 2 quid odd a metre too if you can source it, another superb buy and genuine 99.99 % copper, none of that cheap cca shit from china that costs the same as i paid for the real deal, seller is even quoted on QED's website as 1 of only 2 online dealers so well pucker,

now i just need to find a cheap roll of quality rg213 or rg214 as i'm running low on urm67,

it pays to know your cable and plugs when browsing for a bargain, whatever type you choose,

much better to buy real deal stuff that might be a few years old but quality, than new cheap chinese shite that if you ran a micrometer down would frighten the shit out you, not to mention the low grade copper its made from and the braid you could spit through, and people wonder why they can't get reliable dx even on good antennas, cause they scrimped on the 2 most important parts, coax and plugs, quality counts and when its cheap its even better


i've waited years for these cables to become available at prices i could afford, and that were 100% genuine, most of them i'd probably get more money for in scrap value now than i actually paid for them, copper is extortionate now like aluminium, add that too the hy gain/avanti and Cushcraft arx 450 Ranger Ringo original antennas i picked up recently, massive saving on quality reliable gear, built too last if weatherproofed properly.


Well pleased



As someone said earlier about lmr400 being faked, thats true of most RF cables now, I see shit on sale all the time thats just crap, but people buy it because they don't know any better, if it don't say mil-c-17 f or g or M17/28, M17/74 OR M17/84 it just ain't real, and if you see the word type after an rg number, avoid it like the plague. It's cheap and nasty shit.

not always true for cables like lmr400 and heliax as i'm not sure any of those are mil spec, but the good makes are certainly military quality or better,Andrew,Times Microwave, Belden, Euphen etc, wish it was as easy to get quality here as it is in the states, but sadly importers won't pay the price as only commercial users will pay for it. Hobbyists want everything cheap. Its false economy and shows in their results time after time.



that old saying you only get what you pay for goes out the window on RF gear and HIFI gear nowadays, snide stuff can cost more than real stuff if your not careful.:thumbdown: Knowledge is REAL power. A burner may increase your outgoing signal, but good coax/plugs will improve rx and tx, sort that first, then add an amp.