POTA Question

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, TNFrank said:

What about 2M? I was under the impression that RG8x gave less signal loss across all frequencies. I'm still learning this stuff though.  What would be better then, RG58?  Also, I know shorter is better but I wanted enough length to get the antenna out and away from any tables I'd be sitting at. 

Losses through any coax go up as the frequency goes up. RG-58 is terrible for UHF. RG8x is better than RG58 but still poor compared to something like LMR400.  Each person must calculate what the actual losses will be and decide whether they can afford that amount of losses. What’s worse, the losses are expressed in decibels which can be confusing until you become familiar. A loss of 3 decibels means you lost 50%.  A loss of 6 decibels means you lost 75%.  
Every coax company has charts that show us how much loss they have at a particular frequency, usually for 100 feet or 100 meters. Be careful not to compare the two. A meter is more than three feet. 

Losses increase with length as well but that’s a linear relationship: twice as long equals twice the losses if the frequency is the same.

Most of us find a calculator online to calculate the losses at the exact frequency and length of the type of cable you’re looking at. Just google “coax loss calculator“ and you’ll find one. This is the most common one:

https://kv5r.com/ham-radio/coax-loss-calculator/

 

[TNFrank]

LOL, test questions, yep, I know. A lot of stuff I learned in Tech School at DeVry is coming in handy now. Also, that's one reason I'm sticking at 2M, it's the lowest my radio will do and there's quite a few repeaters here for 2M. I'll need to see just how far from the tripod I'll actually be and see how close I can cut the distance. 

 

[TNFrank]

https://www.amazon.com/MOOKEERF-KMR400-PL259-Male-Cable/dp/B094D3DFG3

There's also a KMR400 cable too.

[SteveShannon]

5 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

https://www.amazon.com/MOOKEERF-KMR400-PL259-Male-Cable/dp/B094D3DFG3

There's also a KMR400 cable too.

Personally I wouldn’t use either one of those. I would buy a better known brand such as ABR, M&P, DX Engineering, Times-Microwave, Belden, etc. The way to make certain you’re getting a quality product is to buy from a vendor you trust to provide quality products. If you buy an unknown cable from an unknown vendor on Amazon you’re completely responsible for assessing the quality. 

[WRUU653]

2 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

Personally I wouldn’t use either one of those. I would buy a better known brand such as ABR, M&P, DX Engineering, Times-Microwave, Belden, etc. The way to make certain you’re getting a quality product is to buy from a vendor you trust to provide quality products. If you buy an unknown cable from an unknown vendor on Amazon you’re completely responsible for assessing the quality. 

This ^^^ 

I would add also that a lot of people assume Amazon will be the cheapest but many things like radios, cable, antennas, and other things you’ll find are less from places like DX Engineering, Ham Radio Outlet, Gigaparts… it’s definitely worth shopping around and comparing from reputable places.  Make sure you factor shipping cost though but sometimes you’ll find what you want is cheaper at one place over two or three others for whatever reason and it doesn’t always seem to be the same place that’s cheaper… just my two cents, that I saved lol.