I'm going to be using a Retevis RT-97S on about a 25-30' collapsable pole for a repeater while camping. Since this is going to have to be at least partially disassembled when travelling, cable flexibility may be an issue due to repeated bending. I'm not going to be trying to cover a 50 mile area with this, just make it easier to hear over hills etc when we go hiking one way and the kids go biking a different way. I'm leaning towards a Tram 1486 because it seems to be cost effective and capable of doing what I want it to do (and probably more). For cable I've got my eye on Messi & Paoloni Ultraflex 10 that I can get premade with UHF connectors and seem to have no dissimilar metals. I figure a 50' section should be sufficient. I keep reading that LMR-400 is great but isn't good for repeaters due to dissimilar metals, and that for repeaters I should be going with Heliax 1/2". Since my transmitter definitely has and my antenna will likely have UHF connectors anyway, would the db savings from no adapters make up for the slightly higher db drop from the cable over such a short span (I don't see heliax UHF connectors and would probably need to do n to UHF adapters)? I also like that the M&P is stranded so (in my mind) it won't mind being coiled and uncoiled every week.
I'm open to ideas on both the antenna and cables and. I did go through the cable loss thread as well as doing several other threads here and elsewhere, but I didn't really see the M&P cables mentioned and no one was talking about the effects of need to move the antenna on a regular basis. I also don't know what I don't know, so there may be other considerations I'm missing.
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WRYN359
I'm going to be using a Retevis RT-97S on about a 25-30' collapsable pole for a repeater while camping. Since this is going to have to be at least partially disassembled when travelling, cable flexibility may be an issue due to repeated bending. I'm not going to be trying to cover a 50 mile area with this, just make it easier to hear over hills etc when we go hiking one way and the kids go biking a different way. I'm leaning towards a Tram 1486 because it seems to be cost effective and capable of doing what I want it to do (and probably more). For cable I've got my eye on Messi & Paoloni Ultraflex 10 that I can get premade with UHF connectors and seem to have no dissimilar metals. I figure a 50' section should be sufficient. I keep reading that LMR-400 is great but isn't good for repeaters due to dissimilar metals, and that for repeaters I should be going with Heliax 1/2". Since my transmitter definitely has and my antenna will likely have UHF connectors anyway, would the db savings from no adapters make up for the slightly higher db drop from the cable over such a short span (I don't see heliax UHF connectors and would probably need to do n to UHF adapters)? I also like that the M&P is stranded so (in my mind) it won't mind being coiled and uncoiled every week.
I'm open to ideas on both the antenna and cables and. I did go through the cable loss thread as well as doing several other threads here and elsewhere, but I didn't really see the M&P cables mentioned and no one was talking about the effects of need to move the antenna on a regular basis. I also don't know what I don't know, so there may be other considerations I'm missing.
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