Longer feed line

[jazzboypro]

Hello all,

I recently received this satellite Antenna for STD-C and AERO reception from Inmarsat satellites. I have installed the antenna outside and it works fine. The Antenna comes with 20 feet of LMR-240 equivalent. My problem is that it’s not long enough to reach my operating position inside the house in the basement so at the moment I have to sit outside whenever I want to monitor the sat. I would need roughly 40 feet of LMR-240 to make it to my operating position.

i used the cable loss calculator from Times Microwave and found that at these operating frequendies there would 4.87dB attenuation. I know I could use LMR400 or 600 but it would require jumper cables at the radio and antenna end that would induce losses as well.

Assuming I go with LMR240 would a LNA installed at the radio end help reducing the cable loss or should just go with thicker coax ? Any other suggestions are welcomed.

Many thanks
73 de Va2fcs

 

[K6GBW]

The better coax will be your friend with marginal signals. If you are trying to receive things that are quite a distance away and or are on higher frequencies, then you'd be better off with the LMR400. I don't usually recommend LMR600 because it is really big and unwieldy. Even LMR400 can be a bear at the receiver connection. You can run LMR400 to a solid point and then use RG8X as a patch for a few feet to the radio without much compromise. Overall, it's a balance of convenience vs performance. The LMR400 splits the difference.

 

[spanky15805]

See attached chart. If you have the money, do yourself a favor and start with LMR-600.

 

[jazzboypro]

Thanks for the info.