Posted 11 November 2007
Due to the high price of copper there has been an increase in the use of CCA for coax cables.
Aluminium based conductors can provide significant price saving but at what cost? With the increased resistance in the conductor the performance of the cable can change dramatically, whilst this may not be evident on short runs the signal loss may be unacceptable over greater distances.
So how can you tell CCA from copper? Although they look the same the CCA will be much lighter weight also if you hold the wire strand in a flame it will curl up. Copper does not do this.
Check the specification that you are buying, if the price seems too good to be true it may become an expensive mistake.