External Antenna- 50 ohm or 75 ohm coax?

[burchis]

I have literally 1000' of RG59 and RG6 coax which is 75 ohms. How important is it to use RG58 (50 ohm) coax for my external scanner antenna. Would I see any signal loss if I were to use RG59?

[n5ims]

You'd actually see a signal gain using RG-6 over RG-58 for recieve use. RG-58 is really lossy at high frequencies since it was designed for use on much lower frequencies than used on most scanners. RG-6 was designed for VHF and UHF TV and is much lower loss at those frequencies than RG-58.

Unless you transmit (or have a very specialized setup) you will never see the loss from the impedence difference between 50 ohm and 75 ohm cable when using a scanner.

[gewecke]

True. Also RG6 quad shield works very well for scanner use too,which I have on one of my antennas
N9ZAS

[jeremymonroe]

I know that I can use this coax for CB usage as well however, there is electrical length calculations to be figured. Anyone have the formula for calculations on different wavelengths in figuring the electrical length? Thanks.