[160m] RE: Topband: Control cable

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

A lot of cable is being recycled because of the high
price of copper.  I bought some cable on Ebay and the
vendor said they had a lot more at one time but scrapped
it.  You might offer a scrap dealer to pay 2X his cost
for any usable cable he receives for recycling.  (Obviously,
some scrap cable is truly scraps, but much of it is still
on the reel).  BTW, I recently bought 25 conductor braid
shielded #24 for 50 cents a foot on Ebay.  That seems to
be about the best price.  Unfortunately, I bought all that
they had.  They seemed surprised that anyone would buy 700
feet of it :-)  ("how much do you want?" "how much do you
have?")

If I was in your situation, I would consider sending 48V
to all antennas and converting it down with point of load
converters.  This allows small gauge wires to be used.
You can get cheap Power Over Ethernet stuff to do this.
Also, you should be able to multiplex the control signals
on the 48V bus.  Hmmm...  Sounds like a good product for
DX Engineering to introduce.

Rick N6RK




> -----Original Message-----
> From: topband-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Tom Rauch
> Sent: Monday, May 28, 2007 7:24 PM
> To: Topband at contesting.com
> Cc: 160meter
> Subject: Topband: Control cable
> 
> 
> Does anyone know a good source for control cables? My 
> Beverage control cables need replaced. Right now I'm using a 
> flooded copper shielded 5 pair telco cable but can't seem to 
> lay my hands on any more.
> 
> I've priced sprinkler control cables at about $0.45 per foot 
> but I was hoping to find surplus to cut the cost since I 
> need a few thousand feet. Has to last a while underground 
> and be at least 20 ga conductors. Can't use CAT5 cables, 
> life is too short. Also need ten conductors or more. 9 
> control and a ground return.
> 
> 73 Tom 
> 
> 
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