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Reviews For: Ecoflex 10

Category: Feedlines (coax, ladder-line, etc.)

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Review Summary For : Ecoflex 10
Reviews: 3MSRP:
Description:
Low-loss flexible 50 Ohm coax for use up to 6Ghz
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0034.7
N2SLO Rating: 2015-09-06
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my second order of the Ecoflex 10 from Vibroflex in Tennessee. I ordered on Monday- had my cables on Thursday. Excellent and quick service. The cables are well made- I ordered various jumpers with "N" connectors, and the cables are built like tanks. The flexibility is very good- that is what I wanted most very flexible cables for jumpers in the shack- as well as my boom runs for my yagi's around the rotators. I am very happy with these cables- and will continue to order from Vibroflex. The exchange rate is in Euro's- since the cable is manufactured overseas but that is OK. You get what you pay for- the exchange rate off-sets no tax. Highly recommended.
N7WS Rating: 2014-10-23
Looks promising with reservations Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
From the manufacturer:

"ECOFLEX® 10 is a new flexible 50 Ohm low loss cable for use in the frequency range of DC - 4 GHz. Its modern construction features a PE-LLC Dielectric that surrounds a flexible stranded inner conductor. An EMI screening immunity of > 85 dB at 3 GHz. is achieved through double shielding by the use of both copper foil and copper braid. In addition, a PE stablized coating is applied to the copper foil to insure that perforation of the foil will not take place due to repeated cable bends. A full range of connectors are available for ECOFLEX 10 including: N, BNC and UHF."

I acquired mine from Vibroplex.com who claims to be the exclusive USA distributor. Scott at Vibroplex was very easy to deal with and delivery was prompt.

Ecoflex is available in premade lengths with connectors installed and both bare cable and custom lengths with connectors installed are available. I opted for one standard length (50') and a custom (60') length, both with PL-259 connectors. With the exception of the center conductor, the connectors are solderless and appear to be very well-designed.

These are the pros. Now for the concerns:

1) The outer "Heatex" jacket is claimed to be fire and "lifetime-use" UV resistant. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I'll reserve judgement on this until after a few years of exposure to the Arizona desert sunshine. The jacket also seems to be very thin, so much so that the outline of the shielding braid is easily discerned. This will be installed on a tower out of reach of Pack Rats so maybe it's okay, otherwise, they are left to dulling their teeth on Heliax.

2) I measured both lengths using an SDR-Kits vector network analyzer and DG8SAQ's software. The resultant data were imported to AC6LA's Zplots software for extraction of the coax parameters. I saw slightly higher loss figures than the "typical" values specified by the manufacturer's data sheet (4.4 dB/100m vs. 4.0 dB/100m @ 100 MHz.) Zo was calculated at 50.8 +/- 0.1 Ohm and Vf nominally met the claimed 85%. (Contrary to popular belief Vf isn't a constant, so this is typical.)

To be fair, measuring through UHF connectors for which there are no precision standards is problematic. So this is offered "as is", your mileage may vary.

G3OZN Rating: 2005-12-28
Flexible feeder! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Obtained via a SK sale, a drum of this.
Excellent cable, very flexible for its physical size which is important when attached to a rotator up a tower, a pleasure to work with.
Rather expensive but worth the outlay.