Lionheart's 55' mainmast has a Shakespeare 1/2 wave VHF antenna on top
with about 75' of RG-58A/U military surplus cable to an Icom M-602 VHF
radio. Her smaller mizzenmast has another Shakespeare 1/2 wave VHF on
top with about 50' of the same mil-spec RG-58A/U.

I can talk to the Savannah, GA, USCG station about 100 miles away on a
weekday when the kiddies aren't jamming the channel from the mainmast
antenna on 25W from Ashley Marina's crowded docks behind the James
Island Connector bridge blocking my path.

If I had to start from scratch, and couldn't buy a 500' roll of
surplus RG-58A/U for $10 at my local thrift shop, I'd opt for a
foil-shielded 8X size, not copper braided shield which is awful lossy.
The drawback here is most of them have solid center conductors and
foam dielectrics which makes ANY sharp turns winding it up into the
mast, for instance, out of the question because solid conductors will
MIGRATE through the foam, ruining their characteristics you pay extra
for and possibly shorting which is worse.....

Aboard Lionheart, it was all moot as we had to pull the cable through
several fairly sharp bends just to get it from the stepped mast into
the cabin and in some tight places from there to the radios. For this
reason, alone, I recommend using VERY flexible, and reliable,
Polyethelene-cored, finely stranded center conductor RG-58A/U (not
RG-58/U which has a solid center conductor) for your purpose. All
those fancy loss charts mean nothing when the fancy foam cables are
pulled through a sharp turn, somewhere. Hell, you can wind RG-58A/U
in a hangman's noose and it'll still work great! REALITY CHECK!!



On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 19:13:20 -0500, "Bruce"
wrote:

I have to replace the wiring in my 58' mast plus 20' to my radio; my
question is this. RG 8x vs RG 8U. I know I lose more power with the 8x but
what does than translate to in watts output at the antenna. The West Marine
Advisor doesn't address this in a laymans POV. I need the reduced size.
Thanks
Bruce

--
Bruce and Elaine
www.cruisinglife.net




Larry W4CSC