Hi Elliot
Mike, W4EF, hits it on the head ref. potential degradation of LMR 400 UF, in
outdoor environments vs. UV impact.
My firm, DAVIS RF Co., sells various RF cables, as well as control cables, and
provides government, military and numerous industries, with cable design and
solutions, not only in the RF spectrum. We are not just wholesalers, we are
cable design engineers fulfilling many custom needs. One cable I designed,
which many hams recognize, is Bury-Flex Tm, used also by Lockhead Northrup and
NASA ground stations.
In the past on T Talk, I have pointed out the issue with LMR-400 UF, and
suggested alternatives.
We sell a lot of Times LMR sizes, and in fairness to them, their cables in
general are superb. However, in order to max out flexibility of UF's, they
chose to use a TPE jacket (Thermoplastic elastomer).
This outer jacket material does not hold up well to UV, over the longer term
(depending on where in the world it is used). Times latest specs have deleted
ref. to the potential life of the cable. And W4EF'S experience, as noted,
confirms the problem.
So, what is the alternative??: Belden 9913F7, which has excellent flexibility,
and same attenuation specs (only slightly different at and over 2 GHz). And,
9913F7 is LESS expensive than 400 UF.
Why is it better vs. UV?? Because they use their own formulated "Belflex" Tm
outer jacket material. It is a highly flexible hybrid PVC. NOTE: do not mix
this cable up with Belden 9913, which at least in the ham market has had a bad
reputation. 9913F7 is a totally different build. And I highly recommend it.
I will just add also that many customers come to me thinking they need to run
their entire length of a cable using a UF type, where there are alternatives to
that which results in our sale being less, but that also means saving the
customer his $$, which is what we want to do for our fellow hams , without
sacrificing performance and application sense.
Lastly, we have very low prices on Low Loss cables, hardline, Andrew Heliax
and RFS Cablewave Heliax Tm equivalent. And we do the assemblies using mfr.
Certified installers. We provide our fellow hams with the same low wholesale
pricing as we do all other commercial customers. And we provide free
application consulting, unlike any other commercial or ham dealer that I am
aware of.
Contact me anytime with any questions. 73, Steve Davis, DAVIS RF Co.
On 11/12/19, 12:01 PM, "TowerTalk on behalf of
towertalk-request@contesting.com" <towertalk-bounces@contesting.com on behalf
of towertalk-request@contesting.com> wrote:
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Times Microwave LMR-400 UltraFlex Cable (Michael Tope)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 20:56:47 -0800
From: Michael Tope <W4EF@dellroy.com>
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Times Microwave LMR-400 UltraFlex Cable
Message-ID: <3199f5a5-9526-3649-f146-36c4a06d8d64@dellroy.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Are you planning on using the TM cable outdoors, Elliot? I had really
bad luck using LMR400UF in an outdoor application. While it was indeed
very flexible, the jacket essentially disintegrated in the Southern
California sun. Regular LMR400 by contrast holds up extremely well in
the SoCal sun. Apparently the UF variety uses a TPE (thermoplastic
elastomer) jacket whereas the regular LMR400 uses a PE (polyethylene)
jacket.
Unless Times improved the formulation of the UF jacket material, I would
be cautious about using it outdoors without some additional protection
for the jacket (for a short rotor loop, a layer of 3M tape might do the
trick). For indoor service, it should be fine.
73, Mike W4EF
On 11/10/2019 12:28 PM, Elliott Lawrence via TowerTalk wrote:
> I?m looking for a source of Times Microwave LMR-400 UltraFlex cable
assemblies. I have found one company, Field Components in Florida, that
specifically states that they use this cable. Other suppliers, ABR, DX
Engineering etc have preassembled cables but do not specific Times Microwave.
Based on the pricing by those suppliers I doubt that the TM cable is used.
>
> Recommendations, suggestions etc would be appreciated.
>
> 73
> Elliott WA6TLA
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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