How many years can you expect good quality coax to last when it is out
in the sun and weather?

Bill


- - -
I Buy Marklin Trains
http://MarklinBuyer.com
- - -

I had some good quality RG-213/U lying on the ground for about 25 years.
It was moved and flexed quite often. Its loss measures about the same as
new coax. However, western Oregon has a very gentle climate compared to
most places. Your experience might be quite different if you live in
Phoenix or Minnesota, or areas with comparable climates elsewhere in the
world.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

wrote:
How many years can you expect good quality coax to last when it is out
in the sun and weather?

Bill


- - -
I Buy Marklin Trains
http://MarklinBuyer.com
- - -

I have some 20 year old Radio Shack RG-8. I have to assume it was originally
of good quality. My assumption is based on the fact that I can't tell any
difference between it and new RG-213 bought from Texas Towers within the
last couple of years. I did put new connectors on it when I got my license
upgrade to General and needed to use it. I also have some new RS RG-8 bought
recently when RS was doing a sell off of that part of their stock. It seems
to work OK also ( especially considering the close out price of $9.95 per 50
foot length). I may have to eventually put new connectors on it since it
came with the swaged on PL-259s, but its holding up all right after 2 months
of use. Our local weather is rather harsh, mainly strong sunlight, since it
appears to have forgotten how to rain here in south central Oklahoma along
the Red river.

Harold
KD5SAK

"Roy Lewallen" wrote in message
...
I had some good quality RG-213/U lying on the ground for about 25 years. It
was moved and flexed quite often. Its loss measures about the same as new
coax. However, western Oregon has a very gentle climate compared to most
places. Your experience might be quite different if you live in Phoenix or
Minnesota, or areas with comparable climates elsewhere in the world.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

wrote:

Roy Lewallen wrote:

I had some good quality RG-213/U lying on the ground for about 25 years.
It was moved and flexed quite often. Its loss measures about the same as
new coax. However, western Oregon has a very gentle climate compared to
most places. Your experience might be quite different if you live in
Phoenix or Minnesota, or areas with comparable climates elsewhere in the
world.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

wrote:


I would bet Minnesota is even better as long as you keep the water out
during the rainy seasons. We spend more time under 32F, which means
dry, and have less ultraviolet to degrade the jacket.

Of course Phoenix is ideal, except for the UV.

tom
K0TAR

Coaxial lines it is not just RG-213 or 8's, is it? ¿what about hard
lines? (suppose a one with its ends absolutely sealed).

73s

Miguel Ghezzi (LU 6ETJ)

That would almost certainly be efficient and effective. Most Hams though
tend to be fairly frugal. Frugality and sealed hardline are not compatible.

Harold
KD5SAK

"lu6etj" wrote in message
ps.com...

Coaxial lines it is not just RG-213 or 8's, is it? ¿what about hard
lines? (suppose a one with its ends absolutely sealed).

73s

Miguel Ghezzi (LU 6ETJ)

k
That would almost certainly be efficient and effective. Most Hams though
tend to be fairly frugal. Frugality and sealed hardline are not compatible.

No quite true. You can get free hardline form almost any cable TV
installer. That is about I all I use. No degradation at all. CATV
connectors are very water tight.

Ron WA0KDS

On 11 Sep 2006 19:26:53 -0700, "lu6etj" wrote:


Coaxial lines it is not just RG-213 or 8's, is it? ¿what about hard
lines? (suppose a one with its ends absolutely sealed).

Normally you only seal one end of the line. That is to prevent the
line from developing a light vacuum when it gets cold or high
barometric pressure.



73s

Miguel Ghezzi (LU 6ETJ)
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Quite a bit depends on your criteria of what is "bad".

All my coax was purchased in the late 1970's and early 1980's for
HF-UHF work. I was very critical of losses at 440 MHz.

I now focus on the HF bands and find the losses acceptable.

All of my problems through the years have been at the connectors.

On 11 Sep 2006 15:20:16 -0700, wrote:

How many years can you expect good quality coax to last when it is out
in the sun and weather?

Bill


- - -
I Buy Marklin Trains
http://MarklinBuyer.com
- - -
John Ferrell W8CCW