The BEST Coax Cable For Ham Radio Beginners!

I remember reading some time ago about the decibel loss not only for the coax itself, but also for the connectors. This is especially true when you hook two runs of coax together, or convert from one type of connector to another (like PL259 to SMA). I never see the actual figures for connectors. I suppose it would depend upon whether they're soldered or crimped on, etc.

Thanks for the info! For broken or no pull line conduit situations: As a former CATV guy, we would pull string through very long distance conduit runs with a shop vacuum. Wad up a piece of paper or plastic to roughly the inside diameter of the empty pipe and tie a string to it. Start up the vacuum on the other side and it flies through the conduit. Use the string to pull through a larger line or rope. They actually make powered blower/vacuum snaking kits, but the wadded up paper never failed me.

The coaxial cable that is best is the one you can afford to connect a radio to an antenna. If one can only afford RG-58, get that. If one can afford the best gold conductor, silver braided coaxial cable, buy that. The goal is to attach the antenna to the radio, so whether the band is Lofur, Midfur, Hifur, amateur radio, CB, 49Mhz MURS, FRS/GMRS, 900Mhz public use radio. Get the swr down and attach the antenna.

Standard practice for conduit pull cords is to install one pull cord for later use. If you do use it make sure you tie a new one onto the tip of the new coax cable before you pull it so you are pulling a new pull cord to leave in the conduit to replace the one you just used. That way you always have one pull cord in the conduit. Standard practice for connector water proofing on commercial tower sites is to use lineman's splicing tape (what you call self amalgamating tape) covered by a wrap of high quality electrical tape (I use 3M #88) and then that covered by brush on 3M electrical coating FD. The 3M FD coating is the double layer of waterproofing protection. It comes in a brush top can like you get anti-seize in. Basically brush on liquid electric tape but it is designed for outdoor use and is UV resistant. If you do connector waterproofing like this you will NEVER have problems with water in your connectors guaranteed.

RG400 50 ohm with a Velocity of 69.5 low loss Teflon insulation Trippel shelled, good up to 12.4 GHz At 1GHz it can handle 600 watts. Also on the Ham frequencies it can handle 1,000 Watts and more. a little smaller than RG58. Its used in all kinds of aviation equipment private and military. Highly heat resistance, you can put on your connector with out melting the insulation. One caveat it's a little pricey not to bad though. Amazon no name 40ft about 70ish dollars, it goes for a lot more at other places. I love this stuff, great feed line coax cable and jumpers between equip..

I think you calibrate the RigExperts the same way as the NanoVNAs, using an open, short ald load termination. You could get an SO-239 to SMA female adapter and put it on the end of your coax temporarily and calibrate whichever analyzer you have at the end of the coax, then reconnect the coax to the antenna. Now you can check the antenna itself from inside your shack without the coax causing weird results.

I use a wrap of Scotch Super 33+ electrical tape, then a wrap of either Coax Seal or self-amalgamating rubber tape, then an outer wrap of the Scotch for UV-resistance. The first layer of electrical tape makes it easier to remove the Coax Seal or self-amalgamating tape (which stick to the coax) if you need to. This combo survived through lots of rain including a category 4 typhoon without any wet coax issues. If it's just a temporary connection for testing something I just do two wraps of the electrical tape.

I found this video very useful. It took me several sittings to finish it due to my availability of time. Thank you for sharing this with us.

As some one that spent years pulling in old school mains multicores in night clubs.... to run lights. You can leave a draw wire... but watch how fast it gets wrapped around others and no good. Run a much bigger conduit... with as few bends as possible. Then get your vacuum cleaner or air compressor, a ball of string, a plastic bag. Bunch up the plastic bag to be a reasonable fit to the vacant space in conduit. Tie string onto it, stick in the conduit and let rip with the air compressor.... blow or suck through! String for light weight in this process, then attach a stronger rope for the big job! cheers

As a beginner, I got an excellent experience with Aircell 7. As for RG-58, there are cables that share the same dimensions and name, but the materials are subpar and are not up to any spec. Huber+Shuner RG-58 is great for very short runs (essentially, patch cables).

Thank you for posting this video. This really helped me out. I’m a rarely new general, getting ready to pull the trigger on my first HF. I have some many questions about coax. 73 Derek

I buy the Airbone 10 and Hyperflex 10. Very nice cable ❤

Good info guys. I use Tesa exterior harness tape. It's a fabric backed tape that holds tight. Doesn't melt in saltwater like vinyl.

I did some research into the best coax for a low power system . 4 watts , on the 26 - 27 MHz Band . The thumbnail shows coax made from three three types . My concern was conductivity from point A to antenna . The physics is interesting . But every body uses COPPER as a conductor . Some may use aluminum . In both cases the longer the RUN of those metals , the greater the resistance . Aluminum more than copper . AND sometimes aluminum will cause house fires . They put aluminum in RVs . So if you operating something that requires a lot of amperage , you’re taking your life in your hands . Any way , I want as low a resistance as possible for runs of wire , longer than 11’ . And I found that the military uses SILVER for their radio equipment ! That caught my eye ! Silver has the lowest resistance to electron flow . So the s/ wrs aren’t as high as you would think . The problem is no one sells the stuff .

Thumbs up for this info!!!👍

The reason lower loss cable is larger than higher loss cable is that most of the loss in coax is due to the resistive losses of the center conductor. So a larger diameter center conductor is used, which in order to maintain the proper impedance relationship requires the outer conductor, the braid, to be further away from the center conductor, which makes for a larger and more expensive cable. I've always dreamed of finding coax with a Litz wire center conductor, but I've never seen any advertised and probably couldn't afford it if they made it. BTW, I've seen truly junk Chinese coax of both RG-8 and RG-54 sizes that were labeled with the US mil-spec nomenclature. A quick look at the actual mil specifications, (there are certain variations allowed within the overall spec that are detailed within the actual number listed, such as solid or multi-strand center core,) will tell you that 60% coverage with aluminum braid just isn't US mil spec coax. Ladder-line is something you can make yourself for very little expense and run 100 or 200 meters up to the top of a hill with very low loss. So if someone has a hilltop 200 meters away, then that's how to do the run to the antenna. Just keep it high above the reach of anyone, especially children. I always solder my coax connectors. Years of experience has taught me the hard lesson that anything else just isn't as good. I've just had too many difficulties with consumer-grade connections, and it invariably happens when I can least afford to have it happen. Coax will mostly get cooked through not by high power, (within spec,) but by extreme high voltage points in the coax caused by a poor SWR. Those points can hit thousands of volts, (see Tesla Coil.)

I looked at M&P but the Freight was much more than the cable I was ordering. I think it would be good for clubs that can buy in bulk. In Australia I get rg58 and rg213/u from Jaycar and Altronics. For connectors I order on eBay. Best for rg58 is where the braid is crimped but the centre is soldered. Rg58 doesn't have a lot of diameter of dielectric so it can melt when soldering the braid easily. I started with rg58 but have switched to rg213u for everything. Soldering is so much easier. Jaycar and Altronics rg58 connectors are rg8x with an adaptor. And these have a large gap between the braid solder opening and the braid underneath. So I don't use them. I bought a full crimping set that comes with a twisting automatic cable stripping tool. I bought a second and removed one of the blades so I can strip of additional outer plastic easily.

With all due respect, the caveat with the electrical halfwaves of cable is that the loss of the cable will still to some extent mask the SWR at the antenna. Though it is still a valid and practical measurement. A "tuner" in the shack is not as bad news as many suspect, it obviously depends on the feeder type, feeder length, frequency and the degree of mismatch. Well done on mentioning the problems with the dissimilar metals in LMR400 etc, not a big issue for most people but it is banned from many radio sites.

Great video and information. Do you recommend if the white jacket Hyperflex 13 for HF. I’m trying to reduce my noise levels when I beam in a certain direction.

Dear Ape & Hayden, I am also in possession of gear I would not have bought if I had more of a clue. While studying for my General (US Amateur) I learned SO MUCH - and now I can see some things I should not have done/purchased. Now I am afraid to study for my Extra license. Will I need (again) to re-think my gear? My learning is this: put money in antennas and feed over new radios. And, listen to guys like yourselves. Thank You!