Tim wrote:
On Thu, 2007-12-13 at 16:21 +0000, Chris G wrote:
in reality ordinary cable will survive some years outdoors.
I had some old-fashioned "thin ethernet" running out of the window and
over the flat roof of my garage at my old house for several years. I
removed it when we moved house and it was in perfectly serviceable
condition still.
I've found variable results. Some goes rigid and inflexible after
exposure, and will crack if you flex it. For coax, the outer cover is
part of the characterisics of the cable, if that chemically deteriorates
it can affect performance (e.g. becomes permeable to water). Not that
I'd expect to see trouble from ethernet use, but perhaps for comms.
If there's a choice dark colours are likely to be better in a very
sun-exposed position than light colours.
I would have thought otherwise, but that seems the conventional wisdom.
Black will absorb more heat and cook itself in the sun, other things can
reflect it away much better. Though is seems usual that the chemicals
in black plastic are more stable.
I live in High Desert and we get a lot of hot sun. All the stuff
made for use outdoors is a light creme color either green or brown. I
did a lot of IR work in my job and I found that the light colors reflect
a high percentage of the sun's radiated energy in the .5 to 2 Micron
region. It was a surprise.
Karl
--
Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
Linux User
#450462 http://counter.li.org.
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