What cable do you use from scanner to antenna?

[bunkerhillmine]

For those of you who have an outside antenna. What cable do you use? RG8, RG58 etc.? I expect on receive-only that there is a trade-off between loss per foot versus exact match from radio ohms to cable ohms. For example, RG8 is a perfect 50 ohm match, but is much more lossy at VHF/UHF than RG6. But RG6 is 75 ohms which would have a mismatch with the radio and antenna. On receive only, do any of you have a preference?

Thank you all,

Jim P

 

[nofdexplorer406]

I am using this Cable here

20-Ft. RG-58 Coax Cable Assembly - RadioShack.com

No problems

I guess its more personal Preference if you got more money for the Fancy dancy Cable go for it as the good stuff was not available in my area at the time of purchase

 

[tneff]

I'm using 15' of RG6 Quad

 

[N4DES]

I use 1/4" superflex cable for my outdoor installations. FSJ1-50A - 1/4" Superflex Cable

 

[zz0468]

For those of you who have an outside antenna. What cable do you use? RG8, RG58 etc.? I expect on receive-only that there is a trade-off between loss per foot versus exact match from radio ohms to cable ohms. For example, RG8 is a perfect 50 ohm match, but is much more lossy at VHF/UHF than RG6. But RG6 is 75 ohms which would have a mismatch with the radio and antenna. On receive only, do any of you have a preference?

The mismatch between 50 and 75 ohms is completely insignificant for the purposes of attaching an antenna to a scanner. So then, the choice becomes one of buying the best quality cable that is available to you that you can afford.

My personal preference is 1/2" Heliax or 1/2" superflex. But a lot of the people here are using RG6 with excellent results. LMR400 is also a popular choice.

 

[thewenk]

RG11

Dave

 

[rkorchensky]

Scanner cable choices

As you can see if 100 people answer your question there will be at least 100 different answers. My suggestion to you is to Google a "coaxial cable attenuation chart" as I just did and make your own conclusion from there based on availability, and your budget.

For example, here is a link to the first one that showed up when I searched for you.........there were 1000's more.

Coaxial Cable Attenuation Chart



Good luck,
Ralph, VE3EUK

 

[N_Jay]

RG-6 is probably the best for the least.

Check the loss at your highest frequency of interest.
If you are not reducing it by 3 dB it is probably not worth the effort or money to change it.

Don't worry about 50 ohm vs. 75 ohm, as your antenna is not that precise across any significant portion of any band.

 

[smason]

RG-6 here. Low loss, cheap, and very available.

 

[W6KRU]

RG-6 here. Low loss, cheap, and very available.

Same here.

 

[bunkerhillmine]

Good

That is what I thought. I happen to have about 500' of RG6 that has been rated to 3GHZ, so it should work well.

Thanks for all the responses everyone.

Jim P

 

[fredg]

I sprung for the LMR400, well worth it, very little loss....

https://www.hamcity.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=381&idproduct=286

$75 for 50'

 

[gewecke]

For transmitting I use belden 9913 flex and for receiving,I use belden RG 6 quad shield.
73's!
N9ZAS

 

[chrismol1]

Of course LMR-400 w/waterproof. You'd mistake it for a garden hose its thick!

 

[N_Jay]

50 feet of RG-6 is about $20.

You would be hard pressed to show me the 1 db, and I would be hard pressed to justify the $55 extra.

I would put the $55 into a better antenna or a taller mast.

 

[eorange]

I used an existing RG-6 run for receiving, and it worked fine. This was a 90 foot run left over from a satellite TV installation.

I have read that it's challenging to solder an RG-6 shield to a BNC connector, for example, because the shield is aluminum (?), although I never had to solder my RG-6. At the time I used an F-to-BNC adapter.

(I ended up replacing the RG-6 with RG-8X to help reduce the SWR & reflected power I experienced while transmitting on 2 meters. That cable also works fine, and happens to be what I used at my previous residence for many years.)

 

[gewecke]

To solder aluminum can be a challenge. If there's a need to,you can use flux with enough heat. That will usually work.
70/30 rosin core is what I used last time.
N9ZAS.

 

[kcoleman]

Using LMR-400.

 

[Citywide173]

I just switched from a Scantenna with RG-6 through a 5-1100 MHZ splitter to two scanners to a Comet GP-6 with LMR-400 into a Stridsberg 4 port multicoupler with ~1 foot RG-58 jumpers to the same two scanners (terminators on the remaining two ports). VHF/UHF/800 have improved in every aspect. Apples and orages, yes, but I'm in the process of switching my RG-213 (UHF Yagi into receive only radio) and Belden 9913 (VHF/UHF Dual band transceiver into another GP-6, VHF yagi for receive only and 800 MHZ yagi into BCD-996T which feeds a Proscan feed) over to LMR-400, as I bought a 500 foot spool and like the results I've gotten on the aforementioned scanners and a Comet GP-1 into a Yaesu FT-7800.

 

[N_Jay]

I just switched from a Scantenna with RG-6 through a 5-1100 MHZ splitter to two scanners to a Comet GP-6 with LMR-400 into a Stridsberg 4 port multicoupler with ~1 foot RG-58 jumpers to the same two scanners (terminators on the remaining two ports). VHF/UHF/800 have improved in every aspect. Apples and orages, yes, but I'm in the process of switching my RG-213 (UHF Yagi into receive only radio) and Belden 9913 (VHF/UHF Dual band transceiver into another GP-6, VHF yagi for receive only and 800 MHZ yagi into BCD-996T which feeds a Proscan feed) over to LMR-400, as I bought a 500 foot spool and like the results I've gotten on the aforementioned scanners and a Comet GP-1 into a Yaesu FT-7800.

If you change everything you will never know what works and what does not.