[50mhz] Replacing coax

[John-RC Flyer]

John,
 
As the old saying goes:  "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
 
If you don't see or notice any problems, there is no need to go looking of them.
Once you start moving things around (if there is a problem) your problems will multiply.
 
Unless you have thousands of feet of coax, sure change it out just for something
to do.....
 
My real opinion, leave it alone, but be aware of how things operate and do periodic
checks to be satisfied things are up to par.
 
John  K1RC
Dracut, MA.

 On Tue, 3/1/11, John Geiger <aa5jg at fidmail.com> wrote:


From: John Geiger <aa5jg at fidmail.com>
Subject: [50mhz] Replacing coax
To: "50mhz" <50mhz at mailman.qth.net>, 6meter at yahoogroups.com, "'VHF REFLECTOR'" <vhf at w6yx.stanford.edu>, DX-IS at yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 11:39 AM


I went out this morning and did a visual inspection on my coax runs, and they all look in very good condition. No cracking on the jacket at all, and the jacket still looks as good as when new.  One run of RG-11 I have is 12 years old, but still looks great.  I don't recognize any signal degradation on the coax runs either, nor changes in SWR.  Now I don't have any complex test equipment to test the coax runs with, just a SWR/power meter built into my antenna tuner.

Given that the jacket on the coax looks ok, and I haven't noticed any change in antenna performance, is it safe to assume that the coax is still good, or is there an age limit for coax after which it starts to deteriorate from the inside?  Is there a rule of thumb on how often coax should be replaced?

73s John AA5JG
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