coax question

[N9FE]

N2 radio japan, you posted a coax question on the zed, the hero's bombed you as usual with there mis informed comments, sth glen is one of the only people on there that i would listen to, anyway, if you have a true two hundred foot run, and you want to run UHF VHF you will pretty much need to go with hardline, you can get away with LMR 400, but at that length it will be loosy too, i know hard line is a big expence, and the connectors for hardline are very costly, i help out three different tower builders with things, they will all tell you hardline, if you can save up some pennys, and run what you got till you do, that would be the best way, i think,, better to spend once on the good stuff, than twice on the lesser stuff,, N9FE

Glen does have decent responses in the Q&A area of the forum. As long as you are not planning a DXpedition to an oil rig in the Gulf, you can pretty well trust his suggestions.

[N3ATS]

N2 radio japan, you posted a coax question on the zed, the hero's bombed you as usual with there mis informed comments, sth glen is one of the only people on there that i would listen to, anyway, if you have a true two hundred foot run, and you want to run UHF VHF you will pretty much need to go with hardline, you can get away with LMR 400, but at that length it will be loosy too, i know hard line is a big expence, and the connectors for hardline are very costly, i help out three different tower builders with things, they will all tell you hardline, if you can save up some pennys, and run what you got till you do, that would be the best way, i think,, better to spend once on the good stuff, than twice on the lesser stuff,, N9FE

1/2" Heliax is "okay", but I wouldn't recommend it for runs that long at VHF, and especially not UHF. If you DO run 1/2" make sure it's not the "Super Flexible" type (aka Super Flex).

As someone who has installed communications facilities and whose job it is to evaluate the same, I would honestly recommend 7/8" Andrew Heliax model #LDF5-50A.

I saw the original thread, but abstained because my recommendations come from the commercial world, not the "rubber bands and glue" attitude most hams have.

Glen does have decent responses in the Q&A area of the forum. As long as you are not planning a DXpedition to an oil rig in the Gulf, you can pretty well trust his suggestions.

Glen is a nice guy but he posts so many times and he seems to know pretty much all the answers and he goes into detail very much. I do however thank him for some of the responses that helped me.

[N2RJ]

The HF coax I know I can get away with something cheap.

All in all it will be 210'.

70ft up the tower, plus a 90 ft run to the house, plus another 50 feet to the shack.

The tower is that far away because I don't want it falling on my house and killing me.

For HF I'll probably go with 1/2" heliax. For the VHF and UHF I'll go with 7/8".

It will cost some, but so is everything else in this project.

Incidentally I did put a call in to my friend who works at cablevision to see if he knows who has the cable ends, if they have any...

[N3ATS]

Glen does have decent responses in the Q&A area of the forum. As long as you are not planning a DXpedition to an oil rig in the Gulf, you can pretty well trust his suggestions.

Glen is a nice guy but he posts so many times and he seems to know pretty much all the answers and he goes into detail very much. I do however thank him for some of the responses that helped me.

Glen turns a simple question/answer into a four paragraph dissertation to try to impress people with how much he knows.

Speak to express, not to impress.

[N2RJ]

The 1/2" Heliax coax arrived today. Pretty impressive and brand new coax.

Another spool (the 7/8") is being delivered tomorrow via truck carrier.

[N3ATS]

Have fun unloading that 7/8"! Don't bustanut dude!

[N2RJ]

It's only 420 ft.. heh heh (420, get it?)

[W7XF]

Ryan.... you sure your sales rep wasn't Mary Juana?? :lol:

K7KWH

[N2RJ]

How accurate is say the MFJ 259B? Specifically to measure coax loss. I called the greek embassy and they said I can't have the expensive analyzer so I have to settle for the MFJ (which I have).

I measured the loss of the 211' length of 1/2" heliax and it's about 1db, but it's all coiled up. Spec works out to about 0.94db for that length. Hey, I'm not griping for 0.06 of a dB, but I just wanted to make sure if this was an instrument error or simply what the actual real world loss is...