Ian White GM3SEK wrote in
:

There seems to be two different meanings of "foil" in this discussion.

Most of the criticism seems to have been about "foil" made from
aluminized plastic. I'd agree this is very dubious because the
effective thickness of metal is unknown, especially in low-cost
cables. The presence of a so-called drain wire is also an indication
that it's difficult to make direct contact with the metal in the
shield.

Quality of product is an issue, but the type of 'foil' you describe, and
as part of a system of braid and foil isn't necessarily as poor as you
intimate.

The better ones are quite tough, in fact one might desribe them as
tenacious when trying to terminate cables, and if you look carefully,
they are circumfrentially closed.

As I said earlier, and I think you are agreed Ian, cable bears
inspection. It does take experience to develop the skills and knowledge
to be competent. Above all objectivity is important. I gauge a certain
bias in the OP's approach... but I could be wrong.

Owen

PS: Sitting here is unwanted rain from day to day (I am trying to build
a shed at my new place), I am a bit amused at the throwaway line about
Australian weather. I visited my old house a few days ago, it is about
150km away, and dry as. However, Australia ranges from tropical
rainforest to dry desert and I would not install any form of coax
without adequate protection from water.

I know from work experience that the products of aluminium corrosion can
play havoc with IMD... but then if IMD performance was critical (eg a
communal repeater site), you wouldn't use RG6 in any form, or probably
even braided copper for antenna runs, you would look at solid copper
outer conductor and DIN coax connectors.

Which all shows that there isn't a single "best" coax for all
applications.