"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in message
...
Ralph Mowery wrote:
Is there a shortage in the supply of coax ? A ham up the road has been
trying to get some rg8x from The Wireman for a couple of weeks. They are
out and said they should have some in soon.

There was a long discussion here about using compression type F connectors
(and BNC) with RG/6QS coax recently. I suggest that you look it up and
refer
your friend to it.

The general consesus was that RG6QS was a pretty good choice for amateur
use. Not the best, but for the usual low power setup, it was ok.

There is RG6QS coax designed for satellite downleads (1-2gHz) so if you
get that it should work for 900 and 1296mHz, possibly 2.4gHz.

It is very important to note that we were talking about COMPRESSION
connectors, which compress from front to back sealing the cable in,
and NOT crimp on connectors, which are squeezed from side to side and
often
fall off.

Geoff.

Thanks for the reply. My friend has been a ham for over 40 years and was
an electronic engineer involving RF. I have been a ham close to 40 years
and also know a bit about the types of coax. He just does not want to use
the rg-6 types. As we both have many ot the connectors for rg-8 and
adaptors for the 8x and 58 types it is no use to get the rg-6./ Also as
pointed out you often need special connectors or tools to install the F
connectors for outside use. He has a small setup of just two or 3 antennas
and does not want to buy special tools for the rg-6. I have often use over
1000 watts for the low bands and also work weak signals on 6 meters and
above. That leaves me out for the smaller coax also. Neither of us like
the solid small wires for outside use on 80 meter dipoles. Too much flexing
in the wind. I am not sure what the losses would be for the copper coated
steel often used in some of the rg-6 at frequencies below 10 mhz where he
wants to use it.

It just seems that some things seem to be in short supply at differant times
in this country. Around 1974 there was a gas shortage ( I think that was
when the shortages started), one year it was a toilet paper shortage, one
year it was a chicken shortage. For about the last year or two it was an
ammunition shortage for guns.

Every time it snows in the South US there is a big run on bread and milk and
that runs out .

We were just wondering if the one big supplier close by was the only one
having trouble getting coax.

I don't know much about the making of coax amd other wire, but assume it is
like where I work. We make polyester material that is shipped out for car
tires and other things. The machines are set up for one type of material
and ran for a while . When the warehouse is stocked with that, we change
the machines to run another type. If the inventory is running low on one
type, it may be a while before we switch over to run it again.