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Ralph Mowery Ralph Mowery is offline
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Default Which coax is better?

In article ,
says...

I have a police scanner. It has an ext. antenna connector on the rear
that is one of those "Motorola jacks" (same as the ant. connectors on
car radios).

My question is whether it matters which coax is used?


It doesn't make much if any difference.
Don't let people wind you up about impedance matching on receive
antennas.



For receiving the impedance will not make any difference as the receiver
impedance varies all over the place over a wide range of frequencies.
Just as Jeff says.

I would use the RG-6 TV type as the losses are usually lower for coax
around 1/4 inch in diameter and the cost is very low. Some have even
gotten short ( 50 to 100 feet) pieces for free from the cable TV
companies. The main problem will be getting a good connection. You
need the proper crimp connectors and tool as the shield is aluminum.

For me, the next best would be some RG-8X. It is 50 ohm, but the shield
and center conductor is copper so you can solder to it with no problem.
The rg-8X is about the same size as the rg-6 TV coax. Uhnless the
distance is less than about 25 feet I would stay away from the rg-58
that is slightly smaller in diameter.