Topband: CONNECTORS AND CABLE

[Jim Brown]

On 1/3/2012 11:48 AM, Doug Renwick wrote:
> One camp saying don't go cheap and another camp saying
> cheap is fine.  I pay 5 cents a foot for flooded RG-6 from Shaw Cable.
> Copper coated steel center plus braid and foil.  My receive 4 square run is
> about 700 feet.  I can hear more than I can work.  I don't need expensive
> RG-6 for rodents to chew on.  The rodents enjoy the cheap cable.  Cheap in
> price but just maybe not cheap in quality.

Loss doesn't matter for RX antennas, but shielding does.  DXE says that 
the flooded Commscope RG6 they sell resists rodents. Commscope is a good 
cable company. I laid  two runs of a non-flooded Commscope RG6 (on the 
order of 300-400 ft) on the ground almost five years ago to feed my 
Beverages, and so far no obvious problems.  And we DO have rodents -- 
rats, squirrels, and gophers that I know of. Because it has a steel 
center and fairly light braid, I wouldn't use it for TX on the lower 
bands, for reasons noted in the tutorial.

73, Jim K9YC