Cat5 vs Cat5E for car antenna material
 

I know a few people have tried using Cat5 or Cat5E data cable (network/Ethernet cable) as antenna material.

Has anyone noticed one being better than the other?

Here are some of my observations after trying both types of cable for my 27Mhz ZZ in an attempt to improve range.
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Individual Cat5 conductors tends to be made up of multiple strands of wire within each individual, color coded inner insulator.

Cat5 E (Enhanced) tends to have individual conductors that are made up of single, solid copper wires.

So far I've tried both and I've not really seen much difference in the range boost given to my car by either type of wire.

In fact I think that the Cat5 is preferable as I think the conductors are more flexible and less likely to fatigue and break from bending my antenna down whenever I put the car in its carry case.

Cat5 seems to be more springy and forgiving. The Cat5E copper conductors don't seem to bend back easily to let the car slid under low hanging obstacles too.

But on the other hand the Cat5E solid copper conductor is stiffer and holds its shape better. If you have a length that isn't too long then you can bend the Cat5E cable so that it sticks straight up and it'll stay that way pretty well. Cat5 tends to flop over a bit.
(My antennae were each aproximately 7" long)

Both antenna mods did add significant range to my ZZ. Indoors I'm getting roughly 18' max instead of the 8' I was seeing origionally before the car would stutter and stop.

I did this mod today... Instead of just using one wire, I used a pair of wires. It seems to hold its shape pretty well.

http://www.fordpower.net/hosted/zipzap4.jpg

Nice Boomslang...
;)

Thought about doing a dual wire mod like that but I like to run my antenna out of a small hole in the front left fender (1/16", in the same place a radio antenna would be on a real car) and I don't want a bigger set of wires coming out of there.


What kind of range results did you get with the dual wires? Any better than a single wire?

Are those 2 wires 2 of the strands that come in cat5?

I really dont know if 2 is better than 1 as I never tried just a single wire.

Oh and yeah the Boomslang rocks.. :D

boomslang suck (my opinion ,.,) ever try ifeel gaming mouse??unreal 2k3..it feel just like real recoil..lol..when you have the chain gun you feel the gun spinner and then big jolts for th bullets ...oh and nice mod.does it affect turning with the extra wieght of the wire...peace -cat-

Yes its one pair (2 wires) from a piece of cat5.

Force feedback mice are not really good for first person shooters (which I play). The recoil makes it harder to aim.

As for the wire, it does not affect turning at all.