RG58U Coax. All the same?

Thanks Jeremy, will look out for the Beldon brand
Rolande

Rolande,
Essentially you need to look on the cable. If it is printed with MIL SPEC it is made to a specification. All Coax whether it be distributed by Belden, RFI, Huber & Suhner and so on will all be manufactured to the same specification and provide the same electrical characteristics if it is MIL SPEC.

From their you can look at variations of RG58 - RG58 Cellfoam which is made to better electrical specifications, or RG58 Cellfoil, which is again lightly better.

At the 27mhz or 477 mhz frequencies standard RG58 made to mil spec standards will suffice with a 5m run costing you no more than 2db of loses @ 477mhz. Most antennas on the market will come supplied at these frequencies with cell foam cable. This will give you no more thanabout 1.8 db @ 477mhz.

If you are looking ate replacing a cellular cable run then cell foil is the way to go.

Most communication dealers stock RFI cable sold as 8058 for RG58, 9001 for cell foam and 9006 for cell foil.

RFI have a really comprehensive web site and will give you attanuation loses on a wide range of cables at
http://www.rfi.com.au/rfiproducts/cablesConnectors/cable_attenuation_r171.pdf

Thanks for the info, will check out the site.
Rolande

Looks like Beldon is the go, thanks

Thanks for the advice Col, will do.
Rolande

Please note, Coax cable for two way radio to be 50 ohm! only. 75 ohm is for TV aerials.
re the comments about solid centre conductor, I beg to differ from the above advise and say multistrand centre conductor is MUCH better for applications where the cable is subjected to vibrations, like in a car. After all, the wiring in the car is multistrand for the very same reason.

A good quality coaxial cable will have a tightly knit, tinned copper weave screen and a tinned multistrand centre conductor. The insulation between the two will be of good quality and consistentency. The outer plastic insulation will also be good quality plastic, preferably black if the cable is exposed to the sun.

Of course, anybody can instantly ruin the best cable by using crappy connectors or fitting good connectors in a sloppy unworkmanlike fashion.
Klaus

G'day V8troopie,

yeah, interesting point re the vibrations. I thought multicore wiring was used to allow more flexible routing through the vehicle i.e many bends and weaves. Will contact GME and bounce it off them. Can you get RG58u in multicore?

cheers,

Jeremy.

Yep, guess I threw a spanner in the works mentioning solid core. I used to do broadcast transmission site installs so am used to thinking solid core for best signal. GME concur that multicore is used in vehicles due to flexibility in installation paths. I checked with Belden at

http://www.belden.com.au/beldencatalogue/PDFS_links%20to%20docs/06_Coax/6.9.pdf

looks like Belden 8259 or 8262 are the go, i.e. TC (tinned copper) core as opposed to BC (bare copper core.)

aaaaaaaaaghhhh that's enough techo talk!

Peter,
thanks for the info, you get to the stage where everything looks the same so its hard to tell the difference, looks like the Belden is the go.
Rolande