On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Jim Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
> ... you should be using ONLY coax with a heavy copper braid shield for > transmitting on the HF and MF bands. > I know several Topbanders--and others--that are using inexpensive 75-ohm aluminum shield CATV-style 'RG-6', even running the legal limit through it. It is actually quite low loss. I regularly run 700 watts through flooded Commscope aluminum quad-shield CCS stuff myself, even using F-connectors filled with silicone dielectric compound (though BNC, etc. connectors would be better, yes), and I know I'm not alone. It's also what I feed my Beverages and 40 meter vertical antenna with. Take a look at Fig. 2 on http://vk1od.net/transmissionline/RG6/. Aluminum shield RG-6 will actually take quite a bit of power. And you can't beat the price! 1000' rolls of this Commscope flooded quad-aluminum-shield CATV can be had very inexpensively. The last two spools I bought were well under $100 including shipping. There is nothing sacred either about copper or the need to solder coax connectors. There are very good crimp-style connectors available. DX Engineering and Home Depot sell good quality snap-and-seal F connectors for it. 73, Mike www.w0btu.com _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
