coax for the antenna

Hi what  is the best coax to use with a silver  rod for good performance is it the 8x thanks  

It all depends on the length of your run, if it is a short length a good quality RG58 would be fine.

Hi  1300ts2 the length of coax im running is 8 metres and im using rg 58 at the moment   and the performance is up and down thats why i was thinking of using the thicker stuff

There are coax loss calculators available online, I did a quick search, and it threw up quite a few. Might be worth using one and punching in a few numbers.

RG213 might be an option, but it quickly gets expensive, 50 m will set you back about £85.

8x is good enough.

Depending on what particular variant of RG58 you have, loss at 27MHz for an 8m run is going to be in the order of 0.6dB.  i.e. Not worth bothering about.

This assumes it is good RG58 coax, terminated correctly, etc.

thanks guys £85 is a bit much and seeing as the coax i already have is in good nick i might just struggle on with it or as Alan says 8x is ok so might try some in the future 

skyrider wrote:

thanks guys £85 is a bit much and seeing as the coax i already have is in good nick i might just struggle on with it or as Alan says 8x is ok so might try some in the future 

Your 8 m run would cost about £20 plus the plugs, it's £85 for 50 m.

My preference would be RG213, but chances are you wouldn't notice any difference between that and RG58 for what you want it for. I chose good quality* RG213, even though my cable runs are all under 10m, because they run inside the house to antennas that are also inside the house and I wanted to make sure I am picking up as little extra noise and creating as little RFI as possible when I transmit.

*Note that not all coax is made equal. I have some "RG213" of which the quality is absolutely shockingly bad. It's the right thickness, with 'military grade' writing printed on the outside.. the centre core looks good, but the shield braid is as sparse as the remaining hairs left on my head. Ok to use as short run out portable, but I won't use for my permeant setups. Make sure you buy from a reputable place if you do decide to upgrade your coax.

thanks for that SangueG

i have seen a video (not remember it now) but an Eastern block person tested 4 watts with rg58 will do about 3.2 watts & rg213 will do 3.8 watts at meter ... same length, antenna & channel just different cable

skyrider wrote:

Hi  1300ts2 the length of coax im running is 8 metres and im using rg 58 at the moment   and the performance is up and down thats why i was thinking of using the thicker stuff

 I would say most of that would be conditions in the wide blue yonder.
When you are on, give the cable a good wobble, if that causes changes, then that  might be cable / plugs not on right

It's not just the cable loss/metre but the loss due to SWR must be added as well.
In a short run it most likely will be small but will add up on longer runs.

Personally I would buy the best you can afford, not cheap stuff.
As mentioned above a good quality cable will have at least 95% braid or the very best cable
will have braid and foil, helps to keep out other rfi.

I have 8metre runs on my vertical and cobwebb but have M&P Ultraflex 10 on both.
This reduces the losses to a minimum especially good for dxing.

thanks guys 

If you have a few accessories, SWR meter etc, you would see some benefit to reducing the number of connections.

I bought an all-in-one tuner, power meter, SWR meter that cut my interconnects down to 1.

Yes thanks 1300ts2 im using a combined swr meter and matcher which i have owned since the early eighties and it works well enough 

Check any old swr meter by connecting it backwards and using it backwards.
Might sound daft but it works and if you get the same readings then you know it is spot on.

ok will do Alan thanks 

Hi Alan i tried what you said about swapping the leads over yesterday and everything ok thanks

skyrider wrote:

Hi Alan i tried what you said about swapping the leads over yesterday and everything ok thanks

Been on and off radio since the 70's but only found that out in the last year lol.

on my swr meter it says swr/fs what does fs mean Alan

fs could be field strength.
Does it have a little silver block on it with a hole in the top.

no above it is the swr/fs and matcher switch, the combined swr meter and matcher is called a wipe model 175

On the en does it have a bit sticking out of the black case.
It would for measuring filed strength i think.

Could be on the back as in this short video.
You got a tiny little aerial with a loop top to screw into it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=wipe+model+175&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b3e1387a,vid:mBPQXMmHBQM