what is a good guage cable....

[Monster75]

ok i am new to all this i have this Antenna Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna - RadioShack.com

and i have rg58 a/u cable is that a good cable to use??? or should u use a different gauge.. i am all confused about this whole gauge thing and all.....


thanks for any help....

oh and this is hooked up to my new pro 163

 

[zz0468]

RG-58 is lousy cable for runs longer than about 15 feet. What you use depends on length, and frequency range of interest. A general rule is, the larger the coax, the lower the loss. RG-8 or RG-213 is a good compromise between cost and performance, but I STRONGLY urge you to avoid any Radio Shack coax of any kind. Don't use it, ever ever EVER! It's the worst available at any price. Really.

A lot of guys use RG6 cable tv cable, or LMR 400.

It's perfectly acceptable to make the main run to the antenna a larger, high quality cable, then use an RG58 jumper of a coouple of feet direct to the radio to alleviate stress on the radio's antenna connector. The additional loss from doing that is insignificant, but the stress relieved can be VERY significant.

Hope that helps.

 

[Monster75]

RG-58 is lousy cable for runs longer than about 15 feet. What you use depends on length, and frequency range of interest. A general rule is, the larger the coax, the lower the loss. RG-8 or RG-213 is a good compromise between cost and performance, but I STRONGLY urge you to avoid any Radio Shack coax of any kind. Don't use it, ever ever EVER! It's the worst available at any price. Really.

A lot of guys use RG6 cable tv cable, or LMR 400.

It's perfectly acceptable to make the main run to the antenna a larger, high quality cable, then use an RG58 jumper of a coouple of feet direct to the radio to alleviate stress on the radio's antenna connector. The additional loss from doing that is insignificant, but the stress relieved can be VERY significant.

Hope that helps.

ok RG6 is cable that i would use to hook up my tv to say cable tv... if so i have some of that. and its new stuff not used... i would of course need adapters for both ends to make it hook up to my scanner and Antennas.... i don,t need super long cable.... thanks for all the help full info and explaining in easy terms for me...

 

[benbenrf]

Monster

With restrictions like budget, access (i.e. the size of the hole you can/cannot get away with drilling from outside to inside) in mind, and the exact coax type designation (e.g. RG58, RG8, RG60 etc etc ......), the rule to apply when selecting coax cable to run between your antenna and receiver (at least as far as general VHF/UHF type scanning/listening is concerned) has to be: the shorter it's length & thicker it's diameter the better (the less signal strength you loose).

A nicely written, basic and easily understood intro to coax is found at: Coaxial cable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

3 basic but all too often forgotten coax installation tips:

1) Sealing exposed/outside connections - using a good quality tape e.g. self amalgamating type or rubberised type tape - not general purpose plastic/pvc type insulation tape - is a must. Also seal/wrap the coax/N-Type/antenna connection point.

2) UV Exposure - where poss, keep as much of the coax run out of day to day direct sunlight i.e. run it under the gutter/eve/roof-line where ever possible..

3) Keep moisture/rain out - last but not least: a small loop or u-bend, that drops a few inch's below the hole drilled through a wall to run coax from outside to inside, goes a long way to keeping rain run-off on the coax from also running through the hole (and making a mess inside)!

Good luck

 

[Monster75]

Monster

With restrictions like budget, access (i.e. the size of the hole you can/cannot get away with drilling from outside to inside) in mind, and the exact coax type designation (e.g. RG58, RG8, RG60 etc etc ......), the rule to apply when selecting coax cable to run between your antenna and receiver (at least as far as general VHF/UHF type scanning/listening is concerned) has to be: the shorter it's length & thicker it's diameter the better (the less signal strength you loose).

A nicely written, basic and easily understood intro to coax is found at: Coaxial cable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

3 basic but all too often forgotten coax installation tips:

1) Sealing exposed/outside connections - using a good quality tape e.g. self amalgamating type or rubberised type tape - not general purpose plastic/pvc type insulation tape - is a must. Also seal/wrap the coax/N-Type/antenna connection point.

2) UV Exposure - where poss, keep as much of the coax run out of day to day direct sunlight i.e. run it under the gutter/eve/roof-line where ever possible..

3) Keep moisture/rain out - last but not least: a small loop or u-bend, that drops a few inch's below the hole drilled through a wall to run coax from outside to inside, goes a long way to keeping rain run-off on the coax from also running through the hole (and making a mess inside)!

Good luck

ok cools thanks so after reading that then RG6 is the best way to go .... as it seems from what i read the best to use... i dont have far to go.. but at same time i want something thick and give best results... for my needs... i own my house so i can drill any place and make any size hole....

 

[benbenrf]

ok cools thanks so after reading that then RG6 is the best way to go .... as it seems from what i read the best to use... i dont have far to go.. but at same time i want something thick and give best results... for my needs... i own my house so i can drill any place and make any size hole....

Personally - no, I would not use RG6. It's 75ohm cable and although lots of folk do use it with little apparent impact on overall reception quality, speaking for myself: if a job's worth doing, its worth doing properly - and that to me, equates to using 50ohm cable (as your receiver is going to be a 50ohm receiver - 75ohm coax cable/connectors is the standard in the TV & Audio/Visual industry, not the radio ham and scanner sector of comm's).

Thats my take on it, Monster

Out of all the options suggested by members so far, LMR400 is by farrrrrrrrr ............ your best choice. It's a pro-type cable - miles and miles are used in the radio com's industry every day - but try to ensure you get good quality LMR400 cable, not Radio Shack or some cheaply offered Far Eastern knock off version from Joe Bloggs cables supplies......

You can also get LMR 600 and LMR 900 and LMR 1200 - as the number gets higher the coax gets thicker and thicker, with less and less loss .... but it gets more and more expensive (all depends what you are comfortable spending per foot/meter). You can get coax cable that exceeds 6" in diameter if you want, and you'll be able to run it around the block and back again with next to zero loss, but hell, you'll pay for it, big time per inch (let alone per foot)!

LMR400 is a good balance and a great cable for amature use.

If you drop me a private message and tell me what area you live in, I'll get back to you with 24hrs or so with details of someone in your area who can supply decent quality LMR400 (and for that matter any other decent coax should you decide on something different) - and while on the subject, if you don;t have any experience putting connectors onto co-ax, you can use this as an oppurtunity to practise, or, you can get the coax supplied with the connectors already on. Presume your receiver and antenna have N-Type connectors (male or female?)?

 

[W6KRU]

Personally - no, I would not use RG6. It's 75ohm cable and although lots of folk do use it with little apparent impact on overall reception quality, speaking for myself: if a job's worth doing, its worth doing properly - and that to me, equates to using 50ohm cable (as your receiver is going to be a 50ohm receiver - 75ohm coax cable/connectors is the standard in the TV & Audio/Visual industry, not the radio ham and scanner sector of comm's).

Thats my take on it, Monster

Out of all the options suggested by members so far, LMR400 is by farrrrrrrrr ............ your best choice. It's a pro-type cable - miles and miles are used in the radio com's industry every day - but try to ensure you get good quality LMR400 cable, not Radio Shack or some cheaply offered Far Eastern knock off version from Joe Bloggs cables supplies......

You can also get LMR 600 and LMR 900 and LMR 1200 - as the number gets higher the coax gets thicker and thicker, with less and less loss .... but it gets more and more expensive (all depends what you are comfortable spending per foot/meter). You can get coax cable that exceeds 6" in diameter if you want, and you'll be able to run it around the block and back again with next to zero loss, but hell, you'll pay for it, big time per inch (let alone per foot)!

LMR400 is a good balance and a great cable for amature use.

If you drop me a private message and tell me what area you live in, I'll get back to you with 24hrs or so with details of someone in your area who can supply decent quality LMR400 (and for that matter any other decent coax should you decide on something different) - and while on the subject, if you don;t have any experience putting connectors onto co-ax, you can use this as an oppurtunity to practise, or, you can get the coax supplied with the connectors already on. Presume your receiver and antenna have N-Type connectors (male or female?)?

You are making an invalid assumption about the impedance of a scanners input. With the wide bandwidth of the scanner and the frequencies involved, the impedance is all over the place. LMR 400 is overkill and unnecessary for a scanner. I have LMR 400 that I use for HAM operation but that is a completely different situation.

 

[benbenrf]

No assumption is made about anything .... who said anything about mis-match?

Whats mismatch going to be here - something around 1.5 (assuming good resistivity) - hell, so what, nothing to fret about in this case. In fact I can think of receive only/scanner scenarios, which if the OP said he was using RG6 I'd say, perfect choice - even better than LMR400.

In the setup the OP has described (keeping in mind typical coax lengths in domestic enviroments from an externally mounted antennas to internally located scanners - which are similar to TV coax runs) there is potential for losses to quickly add up here so much so that he is likely to experience a real world listening difference in using 75ohm versus 50ohm - nothing to do with mismatch.

LMR400 .... only saying it was the best of the options that had been suggested.

Is it overkill...?
Measured in terms of cost or against the value of the scanner, yup, it's out of proportion - you'd want to try get the LMR400 off the used market - but otherwise, nope, its a good cable that is not likely to ever need replacement or upgrading.

All aside, I qualified what I was saying by pointing out the cost, adding it was just opinion
There are as many opinions as there are options..........

If a job is worth doing, its worth doing well. What could important here is the coax length the OP will be running - that he hasn't as yet stated.

PS - Monster, how long is this coax run between the antenna and the scanner likely to be?

 

[Monster75]

hey Ben... the longest the run would be is like 15 -20 feet...... is the longest it will go...

 

[benbenrf]

hey Ben... the longest the run would be is like 15 -20 feet...... is the longest it will go...

Well, that been the case, cable loss is not going too be to much of an issue.

I have to be careful here - the way I go about setting things up and the comments I make are very much based around a lifetime working in the business for companies that don't have the budgetry restraints and practical restrictions that amateurs have i.e. Dan's previous comment re: using RG6 - by all means use it. The only time you are going to experience any real world listenable difference is with those signals that are high up in the rf range of frequencies you may want to listen to (e.g. up around 800Mhz and upwards), and/or with signals anywhere which are boarder-line in strength i.e. so weak that they need LMR400 type coax to be heard versus RG6 (because of mis-match, dB loss etc etc ...). As your coax run is only around 15' - 20', just how often is the above scenario likely to arise?

I'd be suprized if you came into such a situation any more than a fraction of a percent of your overall listening time. Does that justify the extra expense/investment? Only you can be the judge of that.