[Towertalk] Coax recommendations

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

I went looking for a new feedline last year and wound up choosing the cable 
experts cxp1318fx type of RG8 as a good balance, for legal limit amateur use 
on HF at 100 feet or less, between the professional grade lines and the junk 
sold in national consumer electronics chains.  It has a foam dialectric 84% 
vf, a stranded copper center, foil/braid shield, direct burial jacket, .7 db 
loss at 30 mhz/100ft, and if I recall correctly, it handles ~ 2.2 or 2.3 kw 
at 30 mhz (so there's some wriggle room).  I'd recommend it for HF at 
typical runs of 120 feet or less, as in out the shack, over to and up a 60' 
tower. I don't think I would want to use it for a really long run.  Mine is 
about 90 feet and I've been satisfied with it so far.  It's about 
$0.70/foot; less for > 100'.  I will add (since a little humility never hurt 
anyone) that they do a pretty good job attaching UHF connectors if you want 
them to which is great for me because I guarantee you, I'm the world's worst 
cable connector solderer.

Rob Atkinson
K5UJ
k5uj@hotmail.com



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