Any loss in cable is FAR amplified by ALTITUDE on VHF. It's why WCSC
has a 2000' tower. From 2000', a rubber duck antenna on a 1 watt
walkie talkie has a range of over 100 miles. Line of sight is what's
important. The only reason you need the power is to overcome noise
and the damned marinas docking boats from a 70' tower with a 9 dB
antenna running 25 watts to get to the end of the dock. Why the FCC
doesn't restrict marinas to 1W and 10' AGL has always been a mystery
to me. They're NOT part of any rescue party, manned by teenage girls.



On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 10:27:00 -0500, "Jim Woodward" jameslwoodward at
attbi dot com wrote:

All true, in most cases. Maybe even here. My thinking, however, was that
Swee****er's tall stick (82 feet) did two things -- it made the lead
longer, so lossiness was more important -- and it put the antenna higher, so
we actually might be at the point where line of sight was less important
than signal strength, both going and coming.

We regularly talked to boats that were thirty to fifty miles away. Maybe
this is routine -- I don't know -- but I'd like to think that attention to
detail and the 9913 helped.


--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


.

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
One thing to consider and weigh in is the actual difference to the
receiver you're talking to...on-the-air...where it matters. Look at
any receiver or transceiver with a pseudo-calibrated S-meter. Notice
the DB scale above S-9. See how the marks are 10 dB apart? This is
also true down the scale.

So, before you all go hauling 7/8" hardline up the mast and boring
huge holes in the fiberglass to route it, the difference on-the-air,
where it counts is that instead of your signal being S-9 on somebody's
meter with 7/8" hardline and $200 connectors, you're RG-58 signal will
only be S-8.5 and noone will notice any difference....(c;

More CB myths. Most boats only have a 25-50' coax run. What I DO
recommend is a good Belden foil shielded cable, which will require
proper crimp connectors to make it work, not PL-259's from WalMart.
The 100% foil shield will keep locally generated noise OUT of the
cable on receive on its way from the antenna to your sensitive
receiver. You won't have to listen to the cheap straight plugs marine
engine manufacturers love to put in outboard and inboard motors,
instead of the resistor plugs they should be using. The foil coax
will also get a little more signal to the antenna on transmit, but
"big deal"....(c;

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 09:33:27 -0500, Vito wrote:

Marcus AAkesson wrote:

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:41:08 -0500, "Jim Woodward" jameslwoodward at
attbi dot com wrote:

4) What do you like other than the cheap white crap for antenna cable?
I
used Belden 9913 (solid center conductor) on Swee****er. Is that
still a
good choice?

RG214 or similar which is silver plated Cu in both conductor and
shield. Raw copper will in time oxidize and deteriorate in the salty
environment. I have seen some really ugly cables after only 5-6 years.


Check out http://www.therfc.com/attenrat.htm

Common RG-58A (the white crap) looses 7.4dB/100 ft at 200MHz. That's
over half your signal used to heat the coax! RG-8X (mini-RG8 - the other
white crap) is almost as bad at 5.4 dB/100'. Belden 9913 is excellent at
only 1.8dB/100. RG-214 has 3.3dB loss/100' but as Marcus suggests may
have better corrosion resistance. Of course if money, size and weight
are unimportant there's LDF5 (c:


Larry W4CSC

"Very funny, Scotty! Now, BEAM ME MY CLOTHES! KIRK OUT!"





Larry W4CSC

"Very funny, Scotty! Now, BEAM ME MY CLOTHES! KIRK OUT!"