At a guess, because it's simple to crimp. I doubt that the normal twisted pairs of CAT5 was the reason to not use it. -73 de M0XDF (from my iPhone) > On 21 Jun 2016, at 11:29, John <john at eeek.org.uk> wrote: > > . I see elecraft supply a flat 8P8C > RJ45 cable, so I guess there is an engineering reason for that?