My very first outdoor antennas were connected via Belden 9913, and with extreme care in installing the N connectors onto the end and to the antennas, they stayed watertight until a couple of years later when I accidentally ran a drill into the feedline while trying to enlarge the hole into the house for more runs of coax. But many people have problems with water accumulation in Belden 9913 type air dielectric coax so I don't recommend it. I switched to using LMR-400 and have been pleased with its performance in an installation that was up without problems for over 10 years. (Never had problems with it, just tore it all down after about 10 years to move from Minnesota to Texas!) As others have mentioned, LMR-400UF (Ultra-Flex) is an option for less stiffness in the rotator loops. Personally, I'd go ahead and use the regular LMR-400 and leave generous rotator loops, and you should be okay. That's how I put together my station in Minnesota and like I said, I had no problems with the coax in 10 years' time, before taking it all down to move to a new state. The Ultra-Flex version has noticeably greater loss than the regular LMR-400, especially in a 50-foot run on the 70cm (or higher) band. You might compromise by using LMR-400UF from the antennas to the rotator loops to just below the top of the tower, then change to regular LMR-400 from there to the rest of the 50 foot run to the radio location. You could even use a short piece of LMR-240UF for the rotator loop and then regular LMR-400 for the rest of the run, if you weren't comfortable with the stiffness of your loop.
Good luck with your installation. 73 de W0JT/5, EL09vu20, AMSAT-NA LM
On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 2:46 PM, Norm n3ykf normanlizeth@gmail.com wrote:
Belden 9913f7
On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 3:17 PM, Frank Staffa Jr. via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Hello everyone. I just purchased a M2 leopack antenna system and I was
reading about different coax cables to use for low loss. Since I am mounting the antenna only about 10 feet off the ground, 50 foot will be enough to go into the shack. I wanted to purchase RG8x but read that the best way to go is with LMR400. What I dislike about it is that its much wider and very stiff, and will make it difficult around bends. I also have the Az/alt rotator which I will have to loop each antenna to have enough for turns. Any other suggestions out there for an alternative to LMR-400?Thanks Frank KB2CWN
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android _______________________________________________ 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