Excellent video. LMR400 on the tower. Aircell 7 in the shack. RG316 and RG58 in the field. Thanks for the tip, I'll order a 100m roll of the LMR240. 73 Julian oh8stn
@@RadioPrepper Hi you mention that you didn't like the Elecraft KX2 because it got a internal tuner but the tuner is optional i'm selling my Yaesu 817nd and my new LDG Z817 to fund for a KX2 but without the tuner
Hi, I never said I didn't like the KX2... I love my KX2, great radio. I just bought the T1 external tuner because I can place it at the antenna to get rid of cable losses and to use it with other radios. If I had the money I would also buy the internal tuner because it's convenient...
Wise words Gil and thanks for information. the tip regarding buying ex-military is excellent. Those who race cars say that a car is only as good as it's tyres and following on, a radio is only as good as it's antenna system. A point I would like to add is that good coax is a two way street... the losses affect the incoming signal as much as the outgoing. I thank you for the advice... but my bank balance probably won't thank you!
That's right. Too much depends on the quality of the cable. I made two T2LT antennas at 28 MHz from 75 Ohm and 50 Ohm cable. The difference is obvious, 50 ohm is much more sensitive. And absolutely, you need to take a cable of bright color. :)
I have been licensed only 2 years, but I am retired and have a lot of time to research all the aspects of ham radio. I believe the feed line is as important as the antenna, and to go cheap is a waste of money. Buy the best to get the best performance. I suggest you look into Messi & Paoloni coax made In Italy. I buy it in the USA from MFJ. I believe it is better than Times Microwave. I use UltraFlex 10 (10m or .400 Inch). It is much more flexible than LMR 400. I use UltraFlex 7 for jumpers in the shack as it has a tighter minimum recommended bend radius. I do use UF 10 all the way to my UHF/VHF Icom ID-5100. I also like the M&P connectors. They have a rubber seal around the coax like the military jumper cable in the video. Get the M&P catalog, I think you will be impressed. Kent K9AEE
For VHF/UHF, put most of your money into the coax/transmission line and quality connectors, then the antenna, and lastly the radio. I'd rather have a 40 year old radio for $50 and spend $1,000 on the coax and antenna.
What's Your Recommendations For Connecting A Handheld To A Dipole On An 8 Metre Mast Operating On 2m And 70cms Please ? Blessings From Birmingham England 😊
Additionally, be sure to take a multimeter and test your coax for continuity. It's good to do this continuity test at the time of purchase, and also now and then through time.
Hi Gil, good recommendation, I recently bought 15.8m/52ft of LMR-240-UltraFlex with 2 Amphenol PL-259 connectors in 'The Antenna Farm' at good price. Nice coaxial cable! Thank you. 73, HJ4AVG.
Great subject Gil. Rg58 - many different variations of this cable. If you do use it make sure the shield has a high strand count, as some can be quite low, and uses poor quality copper. Personally for portable HF feeders RG8 ticks the boxes for me. Slighty heavier than RG58 but the increased diameter and higher strand count in the shield means it's less lossy per m. For vhf and uhf feeders RG223 is double screened and about the same diameter as RG58 but less flexible. In the shack my vhf/uhf feeder is the really thick one, can't remember off the top of my head. Btw back when I was wearing the cheap green suit at weekends, one of my jobs in the tech workshop was making up spare and fixing those BNC patch cables you got a hold of for the Clansman hand bag kits.
Cracking video and yes coax is one of the most important things on your Radio set up. QRP even more so, as losses matter. So best quality coax, shortest length and as you say get military if possible, they don't use rubbish as lives can be at stake ! 73's and all the best Andy M6APJ.
Brave of you to go into antenna cable :-D Anyway. For HF I think ladder line is unbeatable and as a prepper I would say it's a must to be able to make yer own, since it is so simple and low loss.
Thank you for this. I am using about 5cm of heatshrink tubing right on the crimped bnc connector to prevent too much bending and breaking. It gives a bit of stiffness. Usually I use RG58U, I use RG174 pretty rarely. Only when e.g. raising my telescope pole for my linked dipole to keep the bending low. I dont like the RG174 its really lossy :(
As a cost saving the cable TV cable at 75 ohm is a great option especially if you can get scraps free from the friendly installer. If your rig input is really 50 ohms the SWR is only 1.5 to 1 which is nothing.
Couldn’t agree more regard the correct coax. I have watched hams on TH-cam using 30 ft of RG-174, using wrap because it’s so easy to store , handle and backpack but the the lost factor is high. Also in your home station use the best cable you can afford. Good program and keep putting out good videos. 73 wd4dda
Hi Gil, nice video and question please RG174 is much different than a standard tv antenna cable correct? Because I am seeing people using their gopro cameras underwater with rg174. Although my tv cable looks identical it doesnt work and must be a whole other material with low frequency. What do you have to say?
If it's not >85%VF and less than 0.6db/30m @28MHz you need to look elsewhere. You can pick crap coax easy. It won't be using a foil. Granted I'm talking HF. LMR240 attenuation at 30MHz is 1.6db/30m. It's not bad but there's so much better cable out there. IMO anyone wanting good coax should be seeing LMR400 as a starting point. Very good video.
I have a question I have a handheld repeater works fine with stock antenna uhf, if I use a external antenna with small connect sma , it seems to be over heating and reboots the transmitt radio what can I use or do?
Sounds like you might have some RF running back on the coax shield. What type of external antenna? It is probably unbalanced. Either try a different design or use an RF choke like toroids on the cable. Grounding might help too. Did you check the SWR? That might be the problem as well.
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Thank you so very much for sharing.
I appreciate you Sir.
Çhief
Excellent video.
LMR400 on the tower. Aircell 7 in the shack. RG316 and RG58 in the field.
Thanks for the tip, I'll order a 100m roll of the LMR240.
73
Julian oh8stn
Thanks. Not the best video but an important subject...
@@RadioPrepper dude what are you talking about? This is an excellent video and I'm just putting it up on the site :-)
Thanks Julian :-)
@@RadioPrepper Hi you mention that you didn't like the Elecraft KX2 because it got a internal tuner but the tuner is optional i'm selling my Yaesu 817nd and my new LDG Z817 to fund for a KX2 but without the tuner
Hi, I never said I didn't like the KX2... I love my KX2, great radio. I just bought the T1 external tuner because I can place it at the antenna to get rid of cable losses and to use it with other radios. If I had the money I would also buy the internal tuner because it's convenient...
Great advices thank you.
Greetings from North Africa (Algeria)
Wise words Gil and thanks for information. the tip regarding buying ex-military is excellent. Those who race cars say that a car is only as good as it's tyres and following on, a radio is only as good as it's antenna system. A point I would like to add is that good coax is a two way street... the losses affect the incoming signal as much as the outgoing. I thank you for the advice... but my bank balance probably won't thank you!
Nice seeing you again! RWB
That's right. Too much depends on the quality of the cable. I made two T2LT antennas at 28 MHz from 75 Ohm and 50 Ohm cable. The difference is obvious, 50 ohm is much more sensitive. And absolutely, you need to take a cable of bright color. :)
I have been licensed only 2 years, but I am retired and have a lot of time to research all the aspects of ham radio. I believe the feed line is as important as the antenna, and to go cheap is a waste of money. Buy the best to get the best performance. I suggest you look into Messi & Paoloni coax made In Italy. I buy it in the USA from MFJ. I believe it is better than Times Microwave. I use UltraFlex 10 (10m or .400 Inch). It is much more flexible than LMR 400. I use UltraFlex 7 for jumpers in the shack as it has a tighter minimum recommended bend radius. I do use UF 10 all the way to my UHF/VHF Icom ID-5100. I also like the M&P connectors. They have a rubber seal around the coax like the military jumper cable in the video. Get the M&P catalog, I think you will be impressed. Kent K9AEE
Thank you.
For VHF/UHF, put most of your money into the coax/transmission line and quality connectors, then the antenna, and lastly the radio. I'd rather have a 40 year old radio for $50 and spend $1,000 on the coax and antenna.
“Excuse my French.” Lol
What's Your Recommendations For Connecting A Handheld To A Dipole On An 8 Metre Mast Operating On 2m And 70cms Please ?
Blessings From Birmingham England 😊
Hi, I would use a BNC adaptor, like I use in some of my videos.. Like the ones about ladder line J-Pole and Slim-Jim antennas...
Great video Thanks!
Additionally, be sure to take a multimeter and test your coax for continuity. It's good to do this continuity test at the time of purchase, and also now and then through time.
Absolutely, thanks.
Hi Gil, good recommendation, I recently bought 15.8m/52ft of LMR-240-UltraFlex with 2 Amphenol PL-259 connectors in 'The Antenna Farm' at good price. Nice coaxial cable!
Thank you.
73, HJ4AVG.
Very good , thanks for touching the cable stuff.
Greetings from Bradenton Florida. I enjoy your videos, thank you.
Bradenton wow! I used to live at Carlton Arms on 64th..
Great subject Gil. Rg58 - many different variations of this cable. If you do use it make sure the shield has a high strand count, as some can be quite low, and uses poor quality copper. Personally for portable HF feeders RG8 ticks the boxes for me. Slighty heavier than RG58 but the increased diameter and higher strand count in the shield means it's less lossy per m. For vhf and uhf feeders RG223 is double screened and about the same diameter as RG58 but less flexible. In the shack my vhf/uhf feeder is the really thick one, can't remember off the top of my head.
Btw back when I was wearing the cheap green suit at weekends, one of my jobs in the tech workshop was making up spare and fixing those BNC patch cables you got a hold of for the Clansman hand bag kits.
Good tips thanks.
Cracking video and yes coax is one of the most important things on your Radio set up. QRP even more so, as losses matter. So best quality coax, shortest length and as you say get military if possible, they don't use rubbish as lives can be at stake ! 73's and all the best Andy M6APJ.
Definitely!
Brave of you to go into antenna cable :-D
Anyway. For HF I think ladder line is unbeatable and as a prepper I would say it's a must to be able to make yer own, since it is so simple and low loss.
Good point thanks.
Good content about coax
Thank you for this. I am using about 5cm of heatshrink tubing right on the crimped bnc connector to prevent too much bending and breaking. It gives a bit of stiffness. Usually I use RG58U, I use RG174 pretty rarely. Only when e.g. raising my telescope pole for my linked dipole to keep the bending low. I dont like the RG174 its really lossy :(
i use RG213 at home and portable but going to replace the for some ultraflex next year.
Interesting, thanks.
As a cost saving the cable TV cable at 75 ohm is a great option especially if you can get scraps free from the friendly installer. If your rig input is really 50 ohms the SWR is only 1.5 to 1 which is nothing.
It is a good choice for a dipole, which has the same impedance.
I've noticed many (most?) people hardly give their coax a second thought. Whatever is the cheapest is what most people buy, I believe.
Unfortunately... Especially on VHF/UHF.
Couldn’t agree more regard the correct coax. I have watched hams on TH-cam using 30 ft of RG-174, using wrap because it’s so easy to store , handle and backpack but the the lost factor is high. Also in your home station use the best cable you can afford.
Good program and keep putting out good videos.
73
wd4dda
Will do, thanks.
Excellent video, updating my cables, perfect timing!
Thanks.
Very Nice vidéo, Gil, thanks.
Thanks.
LmR 400 "ultrastiff". I like it!
Hi Gil, nice video and question please
RG174 is much different than a standard tv antenna cable correct? Because I am seeing people using their gopro cameras underwater with rg174. Although my tv cable looks identical it doesnt work and must be a whole other material with low frequency. What do you have to say?
TV coax has a 75-Ohm impedance. RG-174 has a 50-Ohm impedance. How do they connect that to a GoPro?!
@@RadioPrepper I have a GoPro camera and there is no way to connect coax to it.
Indeed, I see no possible association between a gopro and coax cable...
There are several coax cables better than the "RG" cables. Aircell is one of them
If it's not >85%VF and less than 0.6db/30m @28MHz you need to look elsewhere. You can pick crap coax easy. It won't be using a foil. Granted I'm talking HF. LMR240 attenuation at 30MHz is 1.6db/30m. It's not bad but there's so much better cable out there. IMO anyone wanting good coax should be seeing LMR400 as a starting point. Very good video.
Thanks sure, but for portable ops, thinner is better.
I have a question I have a handheld repeater works fine with stock antenna uhf, if I use a external antenna with small connect sma , it seems to be over heating and reboots the transmitt radio what can I use or do?
Sounds like you might have some RF running back on the coax shield. What type of external antenna? It is probably unbalanced. Either try a different design or use an RF choke like toroids on the cable. Grounding might help too. Did you check the SWR? That might be the problem as well.
and great video
Great info!
Thanks.
Good Job, Gil,
73+55
Jan
Thanks.
I guess thats not the single factor, but it is a right thing to prefer coax with high velocities to get fewer losses at high frequencies like VHFUHF ?
I would think so, but don't quote me on that...
Do LDS use Latter line ???
Of course ;-)
Great info!
Can you pls advise which coax would be better for mobile signal booster @ 1800 mhz, Lmr 300 or Lmr 400. The distance is 10 mtrs.
Thanks
If it's a fixed installation I would use LMR 400. For portable, LMR240-UF.
@@RadioPrepper Thanks v much : )