Decibels versus pound notes, or co-ax cable

[Blackolive]

Ive got 3 15M coax cable runs to do.

one for an 11/10 vertical (sirio 2016)

one for a rotatable 2 ele 6m yagi

one for a rotatable 5 ele 2m yagi.

do I ?

1) forget the internet exists, wire everything with the Drum of RG58 I already have, and ignore the odd dB of loss here and there , because there's no one on the bands anyway until sporadic E season, andthen I could have used bell wire. with the money I save I could buy another piece of radio related junk to play about with.

2) Spend £40 on a drum of RG8 mini, because it could be a lottery what spec its manufactured to and where, and I might get lucky, plus all the CB'ers are using it so it must be good, and I can use 25p PL259 connectors with it and solder them with my 25 watt antex.

3) Believe the hype and spend £130 on a drum of Paolo Nutini supeflex 7 linear crystal oxgygen free copper, hand braided by nymphs. with no loss figures quoted on the website, because "its so good it puts into shade the competitor cables of the same diameter " Hey, I might even get to work E-M-E.

4) don't be so tight, buy a £50 drum of RG8, do all the cable runs with this, and be content in the satisfaction that nobody on facebook is going to be sneering at tmy antenna cabling

[Retrodog]

RG8 for your 10/11m "thing"
RG8 for your 6m yagi

Treat yourself to 15m of Ecoflex 10 for the 2m yagi (35 quid plus plugs)

I use Andrews Heliax LDF-450 on all antennas but that is because I paid £40 for serveral good used lengths 20 years ago and it's still in use and good today.

[Tigersaw]

4: Get a roll of low loss CT100 for very cheap, do the maths on missmatch loss vs cable loss and go hmmm

[Blackolive]

Dont know how I manage it but landed on a 25M length of RG-213 off of facebook for six quid. Ive got a length already so will do 10 and 6 with this, will need a join but Ill do it on 10 from the bucket of N type plugs and line sockets in the shack, and invest in a length of ecoflex or paulo Nutini for 2, and Im having a beer , cheers all

[Retrodog]

A well made N type connection will probably have less loss than the actual RG-213 itself @ 28mhz.
I use Ecoflex 10 & 15 to bridge the rotator here, no problems with it after many years.

Cheers!

[Samalex]

use what you want and see what you can work

I use the best i can afford on 6m as that's my main band.

i tried rg58 then 213 to a yagi and listen to a beacon then tried ecoflex 10 and it was an ear opener
I had ldf but wasn't ideal for my location so i have ecoflex and messi paoloni in use at present with some HENGXIN TECHNOLOGY HRCAY-50-9 to try when i have some time

figures are available for all cables i mentioned on the web.
don't scrimp on coax as its an important part same with plugs and dont use trapped antennas.

I try to get as much out of all my antennas and cables i can without the losses

I even tried coax of all sorts on my 70cm and 2m yagis i had up last year when i worked sats and dx again was interesting results

[Unit 148 Mobile]

This> I use Andrews Heliax LDF-450.....

Official UK distributors: https://www.anixter.com/en_uk/products/ ... cture.html

Superior to all the unbranded stuff and most all of the branded coax cables.

Unit 148

[No1cber]

Anyone got any experience with rg214 u ?

Looking in my garage other day for some cable for a mate and found what I thought was 213 is actually 25m of 214u silver coated gear ..got it years back with loads of bits ,,

Upon looking on the net it’s abit of a mine field about what’s better 213-214 as posts say it’s silver coated etc and it’s dearer but the losses seem identical on the charts ? I’m lost

Looks like a nice bit of cable ..

I’d recommend ecoflex 15+ or heliax by Andrews (Scottish I think )


Happy radioing

[No1cber]

Or vhf hf westflex 103 always good and won’t break the bank compared to rg213 and it’s better