WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hi,
I am currently in the progress of installing a discone antenna on my roof, and have heard that the coax cable you use can have a big impact on the how much signal ends up going into the reciever. I'm going to need a coax cable about 15 meters in length and most of the frequencies I listen to are between 100- 600Mhz.
Could someone please suggest which coax cable would do the job for this situation. And also, which is the better choice out of Crimp and Solder BNC connecters

Thanks Very Much
Andrew,

andrewhutchison wrote:Hi,
I am currently in the progress of installing a discone antenna on my roof, and have heard that the coax cable you use can have a big impact on the how much signal ends up going into the reciever. I'm going to need a coax cable about 15 meters in length and most of the frequencies I listen to are between 100- 600Mhz.
Could someone please suggest which coax cable would do the job for this situation. And also, which is the better choice out of Crimp and Solder BNC connecters

Hi Andrew.

The quick answer is to use the most expensive cable your budget can afford. At least RG-213 or Belden 9913.

Avoid RG-58 at all costs. The loss on RG-58 is quite high at UHF frequencies.

RG-213 will probably be the most economical in terms of cost vs performance over 15m. Belden 9913 is a relatively specialised product and may need special connectors to suit (don't quote me on that though) and it's not a cheap product. Of course, either is better than RG-58.

Also try and avoid using adapters wherever possible: if your discone has an SO-239 socket, solder an SO-239 plug the end of the cable. If it's an N-type socket, use an N-type plug. Likewise at the receiver end: attach to the cable a plug to match its socket rather than use an adapter.

Once you're up in UHF territory, ya gotta give that little signal the smoothest possible path from antenna to radio. Adapters can act like electrical speed humps!