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Another coax question

SARGE

Active Member
Dec 26, 2005
137
0
26
TEXAS
I have RG-213 from ant. to switch box and same from switch box to radios, can I use a different coax to radios, RG-213 is hard to run in short lenghts. Thanks
 

You think RG-213 is hard to work with...

Try working with Andrews Heliax LDF7-50A ..
Now that is hard to work with...lol..

Later
 
here"s a question,first,i just installed some new rg213 coax in my mobile and seems to be pretty good stuff.a friend of mine ran rg213 for his base antenna and then switched to lmr400 and i tell ya,what a difference that made.
i thought he bought a amp but it was just the new coax he installed.would that coax work better in my mobile then the rg213?plus my jumper from my amp to radio is one of those cheap radio shack thin coaxs and its pretty long.
if you all say the lmr400 is better should i order a extra piece for a jumper for the amp and radio? if the rg213 is what i should keep using at least should i get a shorter thicker type of jumper for amp and radio? thanks p.s. the radio shack jumper i"m using is about 10 ft long.i don"t like that idea to much.
 
coondog,
Here is what Master Chief has to say:

"The BEST money you will EVER spend on a radio system is on the ANTENNA and FEEDLINE.

That should explain what you need to do....get rid of that Rat Shack jumper!
(As far as length for the jumper? Well, just try what ever you may need and see how it works.)

Also, the jumper that I am using is 14' 2" long.

73's
 
coondog said:
here"s a question,first,i just installed some new rg213 coax in my mobile and seems to be pretty good stuff.a friend of mine ran rg213 for his base antenna and then switched to lmr400 and i tell ya,what a difference that made.
i thought he bought a amp but it was just the new coax he installed.would that coax work better in my mobile then the rg213?plus my jumper from my amp to radio is one of those cheap radio shack thin coaxs and its pretty long.
if you all say the lmr400 is better should i order a extra piece for a jumper for the amp and radio? if the rg213 is what i should keep using at least should i get a shorter thicker type of jumper for amp and radio? thanks p.s. the radio shack jumper i"m using is about 10 ft long.i don"t like that idea to much.

Look at the differance in specs from one cable to the next.If one has 1.2 dB loss per 100 feet and the other has 1.8 dB per 100 feet (quite reasonable figures) then all you can possibly gain is 0.6 dB,nothing that can be noticed.I would suggest that ANYONE that sees a big differance when all they do is replace the coax is not seeing the benefits of better cable but rather had a problem with the old cable.Now VHF and UHF freqs. is another story however but for 11m you will NOT see a big if any differance if the old cable was not defective in the first place.
 
I agree with 'QRN'. If there was that much difference from just a change in coax, there had to have been other problems. There's nothing wrong with 'LMR' coax but it just doesn't produce that kinda miracles. Hard to believe but there's nothing wrong with Radio Shack coax either...
- 'Doc
 
I bought two 500 foot spools of RG8M from Radio Shack for five cents a foot when they were getting rid of stock.Return loss tests say everything is fine as does on-air performance.Of course I am only running 100 watts but it was a cheap way to experiment with various HF antennas including a shielded balanced feedline made from two parallel runs of coax cable.I wouldn't want to run Radio Shack stuff on VHF/UHF (or RG8 by any manufacturer for that matter including Beldin or Times) but then again I am a stickler and have heliax for that. ;)
 
i ordered the lmr400 from rfparts yesterday.as for the jumpers i ordered 2 9ft pieces of more rg213.i wanted to save my origanal 18ft just in case.the one jumper i am using is pretty old but that radio shack jumper i never liked.
like i said before the thing is really thin and flimsy at the ends.with the m800 amp i run i feel better about getting new jumpers.that guy i mentioned before with the base he never had a amp.at the distant he is from me he always hit me with about 1 to 1 1/2 dbd"s and now he"s at 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 dbd"s.i ask him yesterday about his rg213 he used and he said he bought it new a couple of months ago.
never know,maybe it was a bad piece or something but he"s is doing better.i know i"ll feel better with new jumpers.i should of done this a long time ago because it always bothered me looking down and seeing that radio shack one especially.i"ll be getting it next week and i"ll let ya all know how it works out.
 
hello everyone,wanted to let ya all know i got the new feedline and jumpers installed.i noticed on the lmr400 the core is 1 solid piece unlike the rg213 being a few strands.the one jumper was so old that the one end slipped right off.
one thing to is that when i installed the astatic 600 i had the jumpers wrong.

a friend of mine with a analizer matched everything in for me.with amp on high i kept getting a 2.5 reading.and with it off and running barefoot it would read around 1.2.just had to raise ant.up about a 1 1/2 inches.

its really flatlining now.he says i have a 1 to 1 match.with a regular swr i couldn"t get it right but that analizer sure does the job.sure would like to have a analizer but they sure are priced way up there.it sure would be a good envestment.he"s a good friend of mine and did it for nothing but he does make money with it with strangers.it kind of helps him get some money back from it.
 

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