What kind of wire

[patrolman123]

Im preparing to run wire for a base diamond discone antenna. What size wire should I use for this run? Ive seen that the pre-made wires are rg-58. I have two rolls of what I believe to be rg-56 wire. It would save me alot of money if I could use that wire. Let me know what you think.
I guess I should also advise that I am going to run a wire from the antenna and then branch off to three locations. My bedroom, the living room and the basement.

 

[kb5udf]

The wire

From a little reading looks like rg56 is another name for rg6. I think it's already been rehashed, but from an impedence loss standpoint, you should be ok, as long as you are using it for receiving only (this appears to be 75 ohm cable).

However, given the configuration you note, monitoring weak signals may be difficult. 0 db gain antenna, through 50-100 feet of mid grade coax (3-5 db loss or so at around 800), then maybe 6+ db of loss or so through an unamplified 3-way splitter, then through yet more coax, you could easily be down 12db.

 

[TinEar]

I agree with the above assessment Phil. You'd have a lot of loss splitting the lead in to multiple radios with that coax. I'm splitting a Diamond Discone off to four radios with LMR-400 from the antenna down to a Stridsberg multicoupler and then use LMR-240 within the house to try to hold down signal loss. That works well for me but it does burn up some dollars putting it together. The good thing is that since you already have that RG-56, it hurts nothing (other than the labor involved) to give it a try. Then, if not satisfied, go after some better coax a piece at a time. I'd sure try to invest in something better from the antenna to your distribution point though if possible so you don't have to do the outside work on the roof more than once.

I buy all my coax and connectors from an outfit in Maryland called the RF Connection. Good bunch there. If nothing else, their chart of coax types is great to let you know the attenuation factor for different types of coax. Find it here:
http://www.therfc.com/coax.htm

Alan