Advice for breakers all

Last week I put up both my old man's antenna and mine. Swr was rubbish but could hear a fair bit. After mucking about with both for ages I decided the cable was to blame (cheap rg58) so ordered a drum of mil spec 213. Changed the old man's cable today and the swr is amazing And hearing a lot more. Mine is getting changed tomorrow and going up another 10 feet. The moral of the story boys and girls is DONT BE CHEAP!
73's
Gary

Yes indeed Gary. Buy cheap buy twice as they say!!

73's Gary.

Obvious stuff really but worth pointing out still the same...

Ive been known to be careful with money sometimes (the wife will vouch for that) but ive always used 213 even for shorter runs,infact as patch lead length can be important i use 213 for that too...overkill maybe but hey its all i have here.

Well done Gary, couldn't agree more

Some places will charge almost as much for nasty coax as decent coax prices and it just ain't worth saving pennies per feet to put rubbish stuff up.

That said, high quality 75 ohm satellite cable is ridiculously cheap, (even partial rolls can be had for free from cable fitters!), and despite the impedance difference will only give a maximum 1.5 SWR.


High quality coax can be let down by poor installation :-

Waterproof your external joints - moisture will creep/wick down that outer braid faster than Speedy Gonzales!

Keep coax secured - if it's a flapping in the breeze, it ain't gonna last long.

If securing with nail in cable clips get ones large enough to not pinch the cable and tap them in carefully!

Don't put sharp 90 degree bends in your coax - leave a loop when entering a wall and gentle curves on corners.

Don't use those nasty thin cable ties - they'll pinch right into coax rendering it useless.

Talking of which,

Don't let your coax get 'pinched', (and I'm not taking about the local toe-rag stealing your coax!) - I've seen too many antenna installations let down by slipping the coax through a window or door pinching the coax in the process and ruining it.

There's loads of other tips like not running coax alongside mains cable, etc. etc. you get my drift.

BUT - my best tip.....get the best PL259 connectors you can afford. No point in expensive coax then blobbing on cheap connectors at the ends


You can do well with properly installed cheaper coax and terribly with improperly installed expensive coax


All the best,
Victor

Very good tips victor. Cossmik I'm ashamed that I was skimpy with the coax! It's not like me, maybe my age is catching up with me . Gary, everyone should listen to that saying
73's
Gary

I couldn't agree more, but its not just coax, pl259s are just as bad, bought 6 of the gold plated you cant beat them ones ,,,,,,,,,,, I threw 3 in the bin as the threads were fubarred, one more melted to bits under soldering... Cutting corners is like cutting strings on your parachute ,,,,,,, not a good idea.... did the same myself.

70thirds Tom

Absolutely Tom. I don't remember shoddy gear from the old days

26cz455 wrote:

  I couldn't agree more, but its not just coax, pl259s are just as bad, bought 6 of the gold plated you cant beat them ones ,,,,,,,,,,,

No, just no. You don't want gold plated or chrome plated anything. The PL259s you want to be buying want to be silver plated, better for conductivity, MUCH MUCH easier for soldering, especially the braid through the four holes. Downside is you're not going to be buying them for a quid a pop or even two quid a pop.

The only ones I buy for RG213 sized coax are Amphenol 83-1SPs. Amphenol are so confident in their product they laser etc their name and the model number on every single one. Do you know who made those nice chrome and gold plated ones you buy?

Link to Mouser although you can get them elsewhere cheaper....
https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/Amphenol-RF/083-1SP?qs=py4qCovljJ9SbsWPADv97A%3D%3D


They are machined to perfect specifications for the coax so if your coax doesn't fit the coax is not to spec. In the data sheet that accompanies it Amphenol even tell you how to prepare the coax showing you how much insulation to strip and where.

The very first time you fit one you can see why they're worth the money, especially when you come to solder the braid to the shell through those four holes. Takes seconds not sitting there for 5 minutes melting the centre dielectric trying to get it hot enough that the solder will take to the chrome plating. Prepare the cable to how they specify it and the plug slides straight on with a slight resistance, the outer insulation will butt up against a shoulder inside the shell and the braid will go all the way down to a shoulder just above the centre pin hole and the centre conductor will just peak out the end of the pin enough to solder.

Certainly for the main feed to the antenna I'd want to use nothing else.

Very interesting N/C.. I shall be ordering some once I sort out the coax, I have in the past used RG8, but circumstances forced me to use the much more flexible RG58. But more to the point ive never soldered the braid, does it make a great deal of difference.

73s Tom