Flexible Coax

[SDHobo]

Does anyone know of a brand of RG-6 Coax that is highly flexible? The one I've got now gets very stiff below about 50 deg F. It gets very upset with me if I try to uncoil it. I tried uncoiling it and laying it out in the sun, but as soon as it cooled down, I had a 25ft stick!
Thanks, Dick

[SCVJeff]

There are 3 different dielectrics used in coax:
- Solid poly(whatever) stuff
- Foam
- Air

Solid core is not very tolerant of cold tempetures and just stiffens up. Even in California when I want to straighten it out I have to lay it out and let the sun warm it

I'm not sure where you find 75 0hm foam cable anymore, but look for something called "Superflex". It did exist in 75 ohm, and is still available in 50 ohm.

Air coax is for much larger coax and very stiff

[wa8yxm]

There are many types of coax.. Standard RG-6 should NEVER be coliled around a core less than six inches in diamater.. This is your first mistake.

They make some very small coax.. Very very very flexible.. But also very high loss.

Here is a thought... Your profile says DENVER, CO

Also in Denver, CO, is a store called Ham Radio Outlet

Large (VERY VERY LARGE) selection of coax and a good selection of folks who know more about it than I do (And that is saying a lot).

These folks live, and breath, Radio.. and COAX is .. Part of Radio.

[rwbradley]

I have used many brands of Coax and Ethernet cable in my job and I have hated Canadian winter the most when we have cabling jobs to do. It does not seem to matter what brand of cable I use, it all get rigid below freezing and takes about 15 minutes warming up to be pliable enough to actually use. It is just a fact my techs and I have had to get used to in our job. The problem is quality of cable varies and if you do find one that does not get stiff in the cold, I would be very suspicious of the quality of it as I have never found one that does not stiffen, and the use of quality plastics for shielding are absolutely critical to the performance of the cable. I would also never try to uncoil Coax in very cold temps (around 0 degrees F). I have actually seen Coax fracture inside (where you cannot see it unless you strip it down and look for the fracture)