"John" wrote in message
...
Does coax have a shelf life?

I was rummaging around my father's garage the other day and came across a
roll of URM43 that I know to be over 20 years old. It looks OK and the
copper is shiny. However, can I be confident that it will not have lost
any
of its electrical or physical properties? I intend to take it on holiday
with me soon and don't want it to fail.

Advice please!!

Thanks
John/G4IRN


as long as it was kept dry and not exposed to excessive heat or chemicals
(oil or gasoline in a garage) it should be ok. give it a good flexing and
check end to end to be sure the jacket isn't cracked. a quick electrical
test is to hook it up to a dummy load, transmit on the highest frequency
band you can and measure the power in and out (if you only have one meter
you can make two separate measurements). as long as you aren't loosing too
much it should be fine.