rg-59 cable. Is it any good?

[dkweeks]

I was helping my dad clean out his garage and we found some rg59 cable. He, of course, doesn't want it or anything else that has been in his garage for the last twenty years taking up space. Anyway, my question ( or questions) is: What is the best use for this cable? I am a new ham and I also enjoy listening to my scanners. Is this cable good for anything associated with these hobbies or should I just throw it away? BTW, I did look around online to find this answer, so I wouldn't be wasting your time by asking these questions unless I still needed help. I greatly appreciate any and all responses.

 

[dkweeks]

Please remove this. I did not mean to double post.

thanks

 

[mancow]

RG-59 is 75 ohm cable used mainly for Cable TV installations. It will work for general scanner use just fine. The main factor will likely be the quality of the cable. Is it a good quality cable with pleanty of shielding or is it crappy RadioShack bargain basement stuff? If it's decent stuff it should work fine.


You don't want to use that for a ham transceiver. For that you want to stick to regular 50 ohm cable.

 

[gmclam]

All RG-59 cable is not equal. Different brands and "designs" of RG-59 will yield different properties. If the cable is not in good condition, I personally wouldn't bother with it. It is a 75 ohm cable normally used for short runs to TV equipment. It is not the correct cable typically used for amateur radios or scanners, as they usually require 50 ohm cable.

 

[N_Jay]

RG-59 is 75 ohm cable used mainly for Cable TV installations. It will work for general scanner use just fine. The main factor will likely be the quality of the cable. Is it a good quality cable with pleanty of shielding or is it crappy RadioShack bargain basement stuff? If it's decent stuff it should work fine.


You don't want to use that for a ham transceiver. For that you want to stick to regular 50 ohm cable.

Note, RG-59 is no better then RG-58 for most receiver applications.

For decent higher frequency work (above 450 MHz) you want to use RG-6 cable.

Most hardware store and RadioShack people will say they are interchangeable. They are not!

 

[dkweeks]

You mention rg6. I believe that is what is going to my tv's in my house now. I hear about rg8 cable being great, but I don't know what the difference is. When I look online, I just get people trying to sell me something. I would like to see a chart showing the difference between all these cables.

Anyway, I was wanting some cable to run from antennas in the attic (restricive covenants, no antennas outside) which include a 2 meter antenna, 10 meter dipole and scanner antenna all homemade. Right now, I have a rg58 cable that I have to go up in the attic and switch to then antenna I want to use, then come back down and plug it into the radio I want to use. I am limited on the amount of money I can spend, so when I do spend money, it has to count.

Not relevant, but I have a bct15, bct8, and yaesu ft-8900r. The bct15 and yaesu are in my car, but the yaesu comes inside when I want to use the attic antennas.

 

[gcgrotz]

Running to your attic won't make much difference at that short distance, except for weak signals on 800. Check that the cable is in good condition by looking for corrosion or funny colors if you strip it back. If it looks clean it should be ok. If it says "Radio Shack" or "Tandy" on the outside, throw it away.

It would also be good to run to a shortwave antenna if you're into that.

 

[N_Jay]

. . . I would like to see a chart showing the difference between all these cables. . . .

Google Coax Loss Chart :roll: :roll:

 

[key2_altfire]

As others have said... you can use the RG-59 for receiving. I don't see a problem here unless you want a lower-loss cable.

For transmitting you will get high VSWR, this cable is a big no-no for the ham radios.

 

[rfradioconsult]

If you are planning on making your own HF dipole antennas for your ham radio applications RG-59 is just fine; a resonant dipole exhibits about 72 ohms impedence. The feedline impedence differental to your transciever will be neglible.

 

[NAVCAN]

Recently, I was working on an Antenna system, and accidentally used some RG59 (59 is almost forbidden in my field) for doing VSWR measurements. The main Coax going to the antenna is LDF5-50A (1inch dia), and about 300 feet long.

Using the 3 foot, 75ohm cable, as a jumper between test sets, we got a VSWR 1.9:1. I immediately started scratching my head, because everything else in the system was brand new. I noticed the RG59 jumper, and switched it out for some RG223 (50ohm). I was really surprised when I measured a VSWR 1.18:1. I never realized that the 25ohm impedance mismatch would cause such a large difference in power transfer.

All that being said, it was a TX system, not RX, but it just shows how a mismatch cable/antenna system is not so good overall.

 

[dkweeks]

Thanks everyone for the help. I don't think that I will be using this cable for any of my projects now. I would rather just buy the right cable for what I am going to do. I have plenty of rg6 cable, but I don't think I will be using it for anything other than the tv. Again thanks for the response.

 

[jonny290]

Eh, I've got a 50 foot run of 59 going to an OCFD that I use for local trunked systems.

Noncritical application, it works okay.

RG-8 for all my V/U runs, though.

 

[angusbangus]

@dkweeks
I know it's been a while since you posted, but if you still have the RG-59 sitting around, you can make baluns or loading coils out of it. If you're following directions using some other type of cable (50ohm, 100ohm, etc) or wire, the number of coils you use will be different. However, it is a way to use the one cable that all of us have more than we know what to do with.

I'm also a subject of Mayor Mary's, so I understand the covenant issues you have to deal with and probably the radio-related wife issues, too . I am building a multi-band loaded dipole with multiple loading coils along its length. The coils don't care what they're made of... only the frequency that is allowed to pass or be reflected.

If you're still in the Madison area, lemme know and perhaps we can share experiences with antenna designs.