Re: Old coax

["Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> i  was  just  given  a  bag  full  of  coax  cable a  friend  of  mine
> took  out  of  the  walls  of  his  house  when moved (so  it's
> atleast  15  or  20  years  old),  is  it  still  good  for  anything?

The downside to salvaging any wire is what fatigue might have done to it's
effectiveness.  Coax depends upon how well the center wire is insultated
from the outside sheath.  When you pull or turn a coax wire tighter than
it's recommended bend radius you degrade it's ability to carry the signal.
Same thing goes for fiber and most other sorts of data-grade cabling.
Twisted pair is less vulnerable but not immunue.  The wire is generally not
going to "go bad" just sitting inside the walls if it was propery installed.
Likewise if it was carefully removed it might be ok.  Trouble is by the time
you figure out what is or isn't "Ok" about the wire you could just bought
new stuff.  Time is money, as they say, and I'd rather get known-good wire
from the start instead of bug-hunting re-used cable.