RG-174 question

[safetypro79]

Anyone using RG-174 for mobile coax connections. ?

I am considering the EUR-AM NMO/FME NMO mount along with a trunk-Lid mount and some sort of tri-band antenna. I'd lke to use smaller coax on my 2006 Ford Taurus.
I am using my PRO-106 in the vehicle

 

[davidmc36]

It's not that much harder to run RG-58 and less than half the loss. I have had a couple of antennas with 174 and not been very happy with it.

Coax Calculator

 

[zz0468]

I would suggest that you find an on-line coax loss calculator, and plug in the frequencies of interest, and how much cable you think you'd use. I'd also mention that you probably won't actually notice any degradation until losses start to approach 5 or 6 db.

It's not the greatest stuff in the world to use to connect to antennas, but if the loss is acceptable, and there is specific requirement for a very small coax, then the trade-off can be made to work.

 

[kc4jgc]

Anyone using RG-174 for mobile coax connections. ?

I am considering the EUR-AM NMO/FME NMO mount along with a trunk-Lid mount and some sort of tri-band antenna. I'd lke to use smaller coax on my 2006 Ford Taurus.
I am using my PRO-106 in the vehicle

I use 6ft of RD 174 for my work vehicle install: Kenwood TM 631A and 2m/222/440 antenna. This is only good for short runs. Assuming at leat 12-15 ft run from your trunk lid mount to you '106, I'm afraid you'll lose a lot of signal, especially at 800MHz. If you antenna has decent gain it may overcome the line losses.

 

[davidmc36]

I would suggest that you find an on-line coax loss calculator, .........you probably won't actually notice any degradation until losses start to approach 5 or 6 db.

Coax Calculator

You would get 5-6 db loss between the 15 and 20 foot mark at 800mhz.

 

[safetypro79]

Looking at about 5 ft max

Using the coax calulator, (Thanks davidmc36 ) at 154, 460 and 760 mhz loss is small using a Maxrad center loaded scanner antenna.

http://wildcard.pctel.com/images_catalog_group/pdf_docs/2008MOBILE-FINAL.pdf

Thanks guys, I will consider it when I'm off to Portland on Wed at stop at HRO.

73

John

 

[happyscanner]

may i suggest, stay away from rg-174. i learned about it the hard way.