[Antennas] LMR 400

[Bob Nielsen]

On May 30, 2009, at 3:11 PM, Ron Youvan wrote:

>>>> Why not solder LMR 400? What is the downside? I soldered pl-259s to
>>>> LMR 400 to use on a VHF/UHF ant and the swr at the top of uhf  
>>>> went way
>>>> up.  Does that make any sense?
>
>> It really means that a poor soldering job was done, OR a cheap  
>> version of
>> the PL-259 was used which caused the poor soldering job and  
>> compounded the
>> problem.
>
>> Done properly, there is no problem soldering to the silver plated,  
>> Teflon
>> insulated PL-259 connectors and using them from MF up to amateur  
>> band UHF
>> frequencies.
>
>> Been there; Done that; for many, many years.  Even did it with  
>> Belden 9913
>> prior to the advent of the LMR series.
>
>    I have a spool of LMR-400/UF in the basement, but I don't  
> remember if the
> braid is copper or aluminum.  If it isn't copper or tinned copper  
> that is the
> soldering problem.

The braid of both LMR-400 and LMR-400-UF is tinned copper over the  
aluminum foil outer conductor.

Bob, N7XY