Information about RG Coaxial Style

RG-style Coaxial Cable

(blogger@L-com.com)

Following our popular post about Antenna Coax Cable Types where we talked about the low-loss style coaxial cable used in antennas, we wanted to spend a moment talking about the RG-style coaxial cable.

RG is sometimes attributed to mean "Radio Guide". The different standard RG numbers were originally set by the US government long ago. In fact, the actual letters stood for:

• R = "Radio Frequency"
• G = "Government"
• U = "Universal Specification"
• A, B, C, etc., = Added after the standard number to indicate a modification from the original standard, such as to change the center conductor from solid to stranded to improve flexibility

So, a cable referred to as RG188A/U is really the universal standard 188, with modification "A", set up by the government for radio frequency use. Today, RG references are no longer precise and are more of a general reference. Individual vendors may have slightly varied specs for the same RG cable, so it is important to understand those specs for your application.

Get the 2013 L-com Master Catalog

2013 Master Catalog is Out!

(blogger@L-com.com)

Each year L-com produces a Master Catalog, usually with around 260 or so pages of technical information. Yes, it does list hundreds or even thousands of wired and wireless connectivity products, but it is much more than an ordinary catalog as it contains a lot of other helpful things. To start off, the first few pages are a helpful, full-color visual index. Know what you need but not sure what L-com calls it or where they put it? This index helps narrow down where to look! The back of the catalog contains a regular text-based index to get more granular.

L-com's New Ruggedized Ethernet Cabling Line

Ruggedized Ethernet Cabling

(blogger@L-com.com)

L-com recently introduced a new line of ruggedized Ethernet cables so I thought I would post on some of the features of these cables and why they matter. Ethernet, as you know, has seeped in to nearly every facet of business and life. Now, connectivity is not only essential in homes and offices, but often in industrial sites, large-scale construction sites, harsh environments such as jungles and deserts, and in dangerous or active combat zones. In many cases, cellular connectivity is available, but not all. What happens when you have a location that requires a physical Ethernet structure, but the location itself is damaging or corrosive to that structure?

Panel Mounting Instructions for D-Sub Adapters

How to Panel Mount D-Subminiature Connectors

(blogger@L-com.com)

As L-com mentioned in one of its newsletters, D-Subminiature connectors are still used in many applications because of their versatility and lock down mating hardware. Especially in devices that still use serial data to communicate, D-Subminiature is the best solution and so D-Sub adapters are still very popular. One popular application for an adapter is to mount it on a panel creating a port for operators to plug their devices into. Though D-Subs are easy to use, some of the techniques involved in panel mounting the adapters are not intuitive, so this post will go over some tips.

Low Smoke Zero Halogen Overview

LSZH Jackets

(blogger@L-com.com)

Our friends at Anixter published a great whitepaper recently on Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH) in the cabling industry.  If you haven't seen it, it is listed on Cabling Installation & Maintenance's website here.  Of course, we can't say it better than they just did, but we wanted to give a brief overview of what LSZH is for those who work in our industry but don't know much about it (yet). 

LSZH is a compound used to make the jackets of certain signal-grade cables.  Most cables have always been and are still made with a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) jacket.  The PVC used on cables is a soft, flexible, durable plastic material that protects the copper wire within from shorts, corrosion, and most kinks.  It is also relatively cheap, and in most cases has no disadvantages.

So, if you just need a patch cable or a USB cable for a general application, PVC is probably what you'll get and is fine.

However, there are limits to the applications of PVC. 

Helpful Features of CPE Wireless Access Points

Wireless Access Point CPE's

(blogger@L-com.com)

There are a lot of wireless applications out there today, with more uses for wireless connectivity springing up all the time. The problem is that as applications expand into more and more unique needs and environments, the wireless access points that worked for one application may not work for another.  That forces you to buy a range of equipment to cover all the different places and setups that you are going to need.

There are a few all-in-one solutions, though, like the L-com CPE units.

Power over Ethernet (PoE): A Modern Solution

The evolving standards of PoE

(blogger@L-com.com)

The IEEE standards for providing PoE have been around for almost a decade now, but the actual technology to accomplish this is even older.  The original concept was pretty simple: Category 5 cabling has eight conductors, but the standard really only used four of them.  The low-voltage power could be run along the unused conductors to provide enough power for most simple devices. Through the use of an "injector" at one end and a "tap" at the other end, the power could travel along without noticeable problems with the data. Within a few years, manufacturers of many different types of IP equipment began implementing designs that would accept power directly from the cable, eliminating the need for a "tap".  Next, manufacturers of the Ethernet switching equipment developed PoE Injector Hubs to directly inject the power into the cable, eliminating the need for an "injector".  But there were three big problems: