Chuck,
I purchase the majority of my cable and connectors from TESSCO. I have not had
to buy any RG-214 within the past few years, since I bartered for a large
quantity of new cable when a contractor had to install hardline instead of the
RG-214 he had already bought for the job and couldn't return.
As of today, there are only three manufacturers of Military-Specification
RG-214/U cable, which is marked either M17/75-RG214 or M17/190-00001:
Coleman Cable Company, P/N 8421F
Rockbestos Suprenant Cable Company, P/N RG-214 and RG-214LH
Times Microwave Systems, Inc., P/N AA-3409 and AA-7289
Beware of any "MIL-SPEC" cable that bears the word "TYPE" on it, because it is
NOT genuine but merely similar. Neither the phrase "MIL-SPEC" nor the phrase
"MIL-C-17" is a guarantee that a cable meets ANY of the stringent specifications
for the military. There is a lot of junk cable being sold as "genuine military
specification cable" to unwary buyers. If it isn't listed in Uncle Sam's
Qualified Products List QPL-17, it hasn't passed muster. The latest issue is
QPL-17-183, published in February 2005.
Let's suppose that some fellow contracts with a cable maker to produce 500,000
feet of an RG-214/U look-alike cable, with all of the official printing on it,
but he has the inside braid wound so that it has only 40% coverage- to save on
silver. He submits the required samples to Uncle Sam, who rejects it as not
meeting the coverage specification. Gee, what should he do with half a million
feet of rejected cable that is already marked with the official military
specification information? Eureka! Why not sell this defective cable to
Clyde's Cable Emporium at a bargain price, for resale to eager Hams and
experimenters? Like, who's going to count the picks per inch or measure the
silver plating thickness? That's why there is a QPL, to separate the wheat from
the chaff. Caveat Emptor!
73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
Chuck Kelsey wrote:
> Where are you purchasing your RG-214 and connectors?
>
> Chuck
> WB2EDV
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