[Antennas] Coax cable heaven

Thu Oct 27 21:48:54 EDT 2005

Hello all,
Today a friend of mine dropped off a bunch of new coax cable for my use 
in the "antenna farm" upgrade. 
1. A Spool (without the end plates) of "Manhattan Electric" RG-213/U 
cable. I'd say at LEAST 200 feet, probably significantly more. I was 
under the impression that RG-213 was a foam coax, but this isn't and is 
a little stiffer than I expected it to be. This coax will be used for 
the (sheet metal) roof mounted HF-2V vertical expected to arrive 
Monday. I also plan on using it for the Cushcraft rotatable Dipole 
slated to be installed next month. 

Questions: 
1. The coax is new, but skinning back a little insulation, the untinned 
copper shield looked a little "oxidized", that is, not really shiny like 
I expect new coax shield to look like. Not green or corroded or 
anything, just not shiny. Is this normal?
2. When used with a rotator (dipole), how big of a "loop" do I leave 
for movement and flexing? Like I said, it's stiffer than expected and 
I don't want it to weaken and break from movement.
3. And finally, I want to put it up and "forget it" for several years. 
Where it runs across the metal roof (HOT in the summer) should I run it 
through some PVC pipe it shield it from the sun etc?
The rest of the cable was all RG-58, in two lots. Belden and ITT and 
there was several hundred feet of that. That will be used for my 
"receive only" antennas like active whips, loops etc. It all looks like 
very high quality stuff!
73 de Phil KO6BB