darticus
Member
Can I use this for 2 meters and 440 or should I just use this to receive on a scanner. Found a roll and hate to waste it. Thanks Ron
Can I use this for 2 meters and 440 or should I just use this to receive on a scanner. Found a roll and hate to waste it. Thanks Ron
This coax is marked Tandy RG-8 Mini Foam. It does not say RG8U. It seems, from reading, that this is better than the RG58 which I use on most CB's and scanners. Again is it better than LMR400? If I run this for 2 meter and 440 do you think it will be ok? Do you think at 50 foot its better than RG58 for 2m and 440?
Would it be better to use RG58 or RG8 MINI FOAM at a 50 foot length? Any thoughts? Thanks Ron
Tandy? That means it's from Radio Shack. Peel some of the outer jacket off and look at the shield. If you see the white center insulation through the shield, throw the whole roll away - it's crap.
The coax Radio Shack sells has very poor shield coverage, which makes it close to worthless. It is NOT better than LMR400, and is really only useful at HF frequencies and lower.
And even there, I personally would not use it.
YOU Really hate Radio Shack! Ron
This coax is marked Tandy RG-8 Mini Foam. It does not say RG8U. It seems, from reading, that this is better than the RG58 which I use on most CB's and scanners. Again is it better than LMR400? If I run this for 2 meter and 440 do you think it will be ok? Do you think at 50 foot its better than RG58 for 2m and 440?
Would it be better to use RG58 or RG8 MINI FOAM at a 50 foot length? Any thoughts? Thanks Ron
RG-8 Mini Foam would translate to RG-8X. At the VHF and UHF frequencies you're asking about it would be just a slight bit better than RG-58, but not enough to worry about. It's much worse than LMR-400 with the 8X giving you 4.0 dB of loss to the LMR-400's 1.3 dB (lower numbers are better). To help compare, Tandy RG-58 would be 4.8 dB of loss while RG-8 would be 2.2 dB of loss.
Your choice would be (best to worst):
#1 - LDF4-50A Heliax (0.75 dB of loss at 450 over 50')
#2 - LMR-400 (1.3 dB loss)
#3 - RG-8 (good quality stuff like Belden) (2.2 dB loss)
#4 - RG-8X (4.0 dB loss)
#5 - RG-58 (4.8 dB loss)
The "Mini Foam" would make good jumpers (if they're short - 6' or less) on the VHF/UHF frequencies. It would be good for HF though since that's what it was designed for. It's a shame that they gave 8X that name since its performance is much closer to 58 than it is to 8 and folks that don't know better can easily be confused and think that they have RG-8 when they really have RG-8X.