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Times Microwave LMR-240 Low Loss Coaxial Cable Coiled Coax, No Connectors, 100ft
N**E
Improved shielding over RG-213!
I am an amateur radio licensee (W1ES). For years, as I've expanded and changed around my station, I've cobbled together cables as I needed them using 213, 58, 8X, what have you. Over the years, the computer in the shack has gone from an 8088 with an EGA monitor to multicore processors with multiple monitors and connections to some rigs.Over the years, the computer crud heard on the radios has become an issue. I've used Cor-Com filters in my power controller and my monitors have ferrites in their lines but still, there's a lot of RF floating around the shack that comes from the computer in the shack plus probably lots of the other ubiquitous microprocessor controlled appliances.I decided that I wanted to try better shielding inside the shack to try and up my receive quality and bought the LMR240 over the LMR195 because of its higher power handling capability. This stuff is still only about the diameter of RG-59 and has 100% shielding, with an aluminium sub-shield surrounded by the usual braid. It's rated for 1490W below 30 MHz (essentially legal limit) and has great loss specs comparable to RG-213 but at a much smaller diameter.The first length that I replaced was from the ANT 2 connector of my Elecraft K3 transceiver, which I have set up to go to my 6m yagi up on my tower. I have a patch panel at the shack window that uses UHF connectors. I had a short length of RG-213 from this connector to the patch panel and swapping in the LMR240 resulted in a noise floor reduction of several dB as was visible on my P3 panadaptor. The radio sits right over the computer and beneath dual monitors but I have not identified which RF rubbish was attenuated but I'm attributing the reduction to the better shielding, as the lengths were roughly the same.I am now in the process of replacing the rest of my indoor patch cables with LMR240, as there are a lot of connections inside the shack. The end result will be better shielding, similar attenuation as 213, with smaller cables to wrangle.NOTE: I tried taking the cheap way out by using regular PL-259 plugs with adaptors for RG-59. Soldering the braid into the adaptor can result in melting the dialectric and I actually made one cable up by soldering (and not deforming the dialectric). I have decided that crimp-on connectors are definitely THE way to go -- especially indoors! I avoided buying the $200 crimping tool, as I still had a crimping tool for RG-59 around that I bought at RadioShack for about $15 back in the 1980's It is the same hexagonal die and it's amazing how little force is needed for a solid crimp. The less-expensive connectors still require you to solder the centre conductor, which, really, is child's play. If you want to buy the $10/ea connectors, by all means do so but I found a pack of 15 here on Amazon for about $1.50 each and I don't mind soldering the pin, honestly.If you've got a rat's nest of coax cables in your shack, I highly recommend swapping them out for the LMR240.
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