Keith, I am about where you are in my satellite station setup.
I chose 9913F for coax and am running three coax lines plus two rotator cables of 8 wires each. I have 2M, 70cm, and 23cm antennas (helix), all with their own coax run. The reason I chose 8-wire rotator cable for my G-5500 is so I can pull two-wires out of each cable for the 2M and 70cm polarity switches on those crossed-yagi CP antennas.
I'm also using a fiberglass mast from Max-Gain but only going up about 15 feet.
Hope that helps.
Bob W7CQX
On Sat, Nov 17, 2018 at 11:12 AM GEO Badger via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Keith, You want the lowest loss coax you can afford for your run. ½" hard line would be a good choice, though not inexpensive and neither are the connectors. Plus it is rather rigid and can be difficult to handle. Terminate it at the rotator and use a flexible jumper from there to the antennas. To use a diplexer you'll need one at both ends, assuming 2 antennas. Recall that a diplexer will have insertion loss of >3 dB. And that I don't believe they will pass DC. Though I haven't ever checked that. --- Ciao baby, catch you on the flip side. GEO
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
From: "Keith E. Brandt, WD9GET" <wd9get@amsat.org>To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2018 10:11 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Station advice: coax
There's been a lot of good station advice on the reflector recently that I've really appreciated. I'm slowly but surely building up my sat ground station. I've got my Yaesu G5400B connected and running and I've got an antenna plan. The next issue is running coax.
What's the recommendation on coax runs? It looks like I'll have between 75 and 100 ft from the shack to the mount. I can envision running a separate line for 2m and 440, but is it also effective to use a diplexer at the antenna? Does that limit my ability to later add a mast-mounted preamp with power-over-coax? (I'll probably add preamp(s) at a later date)
Is the ultraflex coax really necessary for hooking up around the rotator? I'm sure it's better, but is it really worth the extra cost? I certainly don't want to pay the high price for ultraflex for the full run, especially if I'm using two lines.
Thoughts appreciated.
73, Keith --
Keith E. Brandt, MD, MPH /wd9get@amsat.org/ /Christianity and science are opposed… but only in the same sense as my thumb and forefinger are opposed- and between them I can grasp everything. /—Sir William Bragg (Nobel Prize for Physics- 1915) *This message transmitted with 100% recycled electrons _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb