Have you noticed degradation of earnings from your Helium Hotspot system after installing what you thought was genuine LMR®-400 coaxial cable?
A possible cause is the cable you thought you have purchased is actually non-genuine LMR®-400 Coaxial cable, therefore you may have been the victim of fraud.
Genuine LMR® cable is solely manufactured by Times Microwave Systems.
Times Microwave Systems are aware of a recent significant increase in unethical traders specifically targeting the Helium community by advertising and selling low quality and counterfeit & fake “LMR” cables with their resultant poor RF performance and quality.
Sales channels being used include E Commerce websites, E Bay, Amazon or even by some cable assemblers offering “LMR cable Assemblies”.
With the recent PoCv11 changes, Helium Hotspot owners now rely more than ever on the superior Ultra Low Loss LMR® coaxial cables in their system. The LMR® cables help to reduce their RF system losses to an absolute minimum. This helps to improve their system to noise ratios – and hence their ability to receive more witnesses.
LMR® is a registered trademark of Times Microwave Systems USA. This means that Times Microwave Systems are the legal owner of this globally trademarked brand which prevents all other companies using this protected name to advertise, describe or mark products which have not been manufactured by Times Microwave Systems.
Times Microwave Systems manufacture and design their industry standard LMR® product range to meet tight quality specifications which result in excellent cable characteristics such as Ultra Low Loss, High Flexibility, Weatherproof, UV Resistance, consistency, and Excellent reliability – thus ensuring long life and reliable performance after installation.
This enables Times Microwave Systems to offer an industry leading 10 Year manufacturer’s warranty with the LMR® product range.
How Can I Identify Counterfeit LMR-400?
Times Microwave genuine LMR® cable is easily identifiable as it has the following very specific cable marking -which is continually printed every metre along the entire cable length with the following information:
Example of genuine Times Microwave Systems LMR® Coaxial cable
LMR-400 Product Marking Key
- The Product Code (LMR®-400)
- The Times Microwave Logo
- The Manufacturer (Times Microwave Systems)
- The Contact Telephone Number
- USA Manufacturers Cage Code Number
- Date of Manufacture
Purchase genuine LMR® Cable Assemblies here from the UK authorised distributor of Times Microwave Systems LMR® products:
How to Identify Counterfeit / ‘Fake LMR-400’ Cables
Currently, the market is flooded with fake, low performance cable. Let’s look at some examples below:
As can be seen in the above picture, the manufacturer has tried to disguise their counterfeit cable by applying a Dot Matrix style printing on the cable with the term “LMR400” however, the following information is missing from this cable:
- The Times Microwave Logo
- The Manufacturer (Times Microwave Systems)
- The Contact Telephone Number
- Cage Number
- Date of Manufacture
Below is another example of counterfeit/ fake LMR-400 cable, in this case only the product SKU printed on the cable. From the picture, there is also visible quality issues with the cable. The heat shrink boot on the SMA connector is in the incorrect position, allowing a path for water and moisture ingress.
As the Authorised Distributor of Times Microwave Systems products, McGill Microwave Systems have recently been inundated with customers contacting us and requesting our assistance to solve apparent Helium hotspot RF performance degradation. When investigating the original setup, we have found in many cases that the customer had unwittingly purchased/been sold counterfeit/fake LMR cable -which had significantly degraded in electrical performance over a short period of time.
Genuine LMR®-400 vs Fake ‘LMR400’ Cable – The Real Differences
Below are some typical differences between genuine LMR® cable and counterfeit “LMR” cables
Centre Conductor
The LMR® Centre conductor uses a far more generous amount of high-quality copper than attempted, fake copies – this reduces oxidisation effect and therefore prolongs the electrical performance of the cable over time. Fakes use a simple flash of poor-quality, low-cost Copper in their centre conductor, meaning electrical performance degrades over a much shorter period, resulting in increases in cable dB attenuation and correspondingly reduced Hotspot performance and reliability.
Dielectric
The LMR® Dielectric uses closed cell foam polyethylene technology. Many fake cables use old, open cell technology. The difference here is that if there is any possibility of water ingress, water will not manage to migrate through the closed cell LMR® dielectric. It can, however, migrate freely through open cell dielectrics, leading to premature RF performance degradation due to water ingress and internal corrosion. Especially important in most installations where the cable is mounted vertically down an Antenna pole/mast.
Outer Conductor
The LMR® outer conductor is chemically bonded to the dielectric, this ensures excellent shielding effectiveness of the cable (>90dB for all LMR® cable types). Many clones have much inferior RF Shielding performance due to reduced outer braid being used (to reduce cost) and lack of manufacturing controls and processes resulting in poorly bonded outer conductors. This directly results in higher loss and insertion loss/signal loss instability and variation.
Outer Braid
The outer braid on the LMR®-400 Cable is made of Tinned Copper. Many clones opt for a reduced coverage copper only braid. The problem with using a copper only braid is premature oxidisation over time and generation of noise – directly resulting in increased Signal to Noise Ratio and therefore reduced witnessing -especially after PoCv11 changes.
Outer Jacket
The outer jacket on all genuine LMR® cables is manufactured with a Tough, UV resistant Polyethylene material.
The LMR® range is a large family of small to large diameter coaxial cables which also offer additional benefits such as superior flexibility, smaller Bend Radius, and ease of installation.
Many ‘Fake LMR’ cables use the lowest cost jacket possible – usually using non-UV Resistant PVC material as the outer jacket. The large drawback with use of non-UV Resistant PVC as the outer jacketing material results in the potential for the outer jacket to degrade and split open when subject to sunlight – resulting in water ingress, significant attenuation increases and even system premature failure.
What should I do?
If you think you may have fallen into the trap of being scammed by an unethical manufacturer or trader supplying you fake LMR-400, here are some steps that McGill Microwave would suggest taking:
- Contact the trader that originally sold you the cable, ensure that they are aware that the cable they have supplied you is a ‘Fake LMR-400’ cable and therefore they are breaking the law, request for a full refund. The product should not be returned to the seller even once refunded.
- Open a case with trading standards with the help of citizens advice. This step should be taken to help protect future consumers from accidentally falling into the same trap of purchasing fake LMR®-400 cable and therefore being disappointed. Trading standards will contact the companies illegally selling the fake products at that point to ensure penalties/fines are given and all illegal products are destroyed.
Trading standards offences can usually be punished with a large fine, and in many cases the amount is unlimited.
Reporting to Trading Standards – Citizens Advice
To Summarise
To protect yourself against unknowingly purchasing fake LMR® cables, buy only from McGill Microwave Systems – the appointed Authorised Distributor of Times Microwave Systems products throughout Europe and the Middle East and a trusted partner for over 30 years.
Our full range of genuine Times Microwave LMR® series products are found here:
We also custom manufacture and test LMR® cable assemblies to your exact requirements in house, on a next day delivery service. To find out some of the assemblies we manufacture here, you can find our assemblies here:
LMR® is a registered Trademark of Times Microwave Systems USA.
