Rebuilding my station

[fgentges at mindspring.com]

I have had good luck with used and somewhat old coax.  I can put in a 
signal generator on one end and a termination on the other.  a good RF 
voltmeter can then check the levels at each end and the cable loss is 
measured.  You will start seeing loss on good cable at 440 MHz so you 
may need to look at the spec sheets.

I recall how some old WW2 RG8 was really bad while it seems most made 
after that lasted much longer.  The "bad" now seems to be seen as a lack 
of flexibility with cracking sounds as it is bent.  If it passes this 
test, then you can use the signal generator.

You can also use a hipot tester I suppose but those testers are rather rare.

Frank K0BRA



On 1/21/2013 3:44 PM, Alex Fraser wrote:
>      Over the last few years, my interest in ham radio dwindled.  I let
> my antennas sit unused and ended up taking them all down, but one.
> I've been having some fun playing with that one last antenna and think I
> might want to improve my station again.
>
>      Today I was tasked with draining our garden hoses for the upcoming
> deep freeze.  I stretched them out in the yard running down hill so they
> will drain out the water.  I looked at them in the yard and decided that
> I ought to stretch out some of the used coax I'm going to need for
> rebuilding my antenna farm.  It seemed like a logical idea at the time,
> though regurgitating the moment I can't figure what that logic was all
> about, still it is progress.   I'll cut off the ends of the cable to
> check for water damage and put new connectors on after I check for
> shorts.   It's nice looking RG8 and I got it used from a local ham who
> was down sizing his station. That was 15 years ago and he probably had
> it up in the air for a while, so it's 20 to 30 years old.  Just how long
> does this stuff last?   Who has the oldest coax still in use?
>
> --
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