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Picking up 100ft of CATV 1/2 hardline today, how do I use this stuff?

mr_fx

Sr. Member
Oct 8, 2011
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Kansas City
I'm picking up 100 foot of CATV hardline today for FREE. I am planning to use it on my 2m SSB/CW antenna. when I bring the antenna up another 25 foot (around 75-80 feet at that point) It will be replacing some JSC Wire and Cable 3060 (really high quality mini 8, almost as good as RG213 according to it's specs)

what will I need to make use of this stuff, all the walk thrus are for 3/4" cable
 

Been there, tried that. More frustrating than its worth. Connectors, odd size, hard or impossible to solder, etc.
 
Assuming 75 ohm feed line as you said it is CATV. It is useable but it is a hassle. You have to get an exact multiple of a half wavelength of the frequency you are using it on, and you have to factor in the velocity factor of the coax.

Any error in this calculation will be multiplied by the fact that the the length of the feed line will include many half wavelength sections at 2m frequencies. There is also a margin of error on the feed line velocity factor rating itself, although likely not much, but again, not much over many half wavelengths adds up.

You could build a feed line transformer to convert to 75 ohms by using quarter length 50 and 75 ohm feel line segments and and eliminate the need for half wavelength multiple lengths, but then you might also have to convert it back.

This is done in the order of any length 50 ohm feed line, 1/12 wavelength 75 ohm feed line, 1/12 wavelength 50 ohm feed line, any length of 75 ohm feed line. You could in theory ignore the first 50 ohm segment and run the 75 ohm feed line directly from a radio, but in practice several feet of the 50 ohm feed line before the first 75 ohm feed line segment works better. As above don't forget the velocity factor in your calculations.

It is possible that you might not have to convert it back depending on the properties of the antenna, and its matching network if it has one. Some antennas actually prefer the 75 ohm feed impedance (such as a center fed dipole), and antenna matching networks (think Maco style but many others as well) will match to a wide range of input impedances, and are thus more forgiving.

I suppose you could put an antenna tuner between the 50 ohm input and 75 ohm feed line sections as well, you will need a 75 ohm dummy load at the end of the 75 ohm coax to tune the tuner properly.

Any way you do it it could be an interesting project to post about what and how you did it.

Mind you, if it is 50 ohm feed line after all you can ignore my post completely.


The DB


Edit for error correction in one of my numbers.
 
Making your own connectors is not that hard if you are a bit handy with tools and can think outside the box.

KC4HW.NET - Jim Johnson's Hamradio Pages--CATV 1/2" Hardline Connector

Make hardline coax connectors

Connectors for 3/4 inch Aluminum hard line.


A lot of guys just ignore the 1.5:1 SWR or you can trim the overall length for best match.You need an exact multiple of 1/2 wavelengths of cable to repeat the antenna impedance. Using an antenna analyzer makes this easy. This is one of the extremely few times that coax length actually does matter when it comes to impedance matching.
 
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Making your own connectors is not that hard if you are a bit handy with tools and can think outside the box.

KC4HW.NET - Jim Johnson's Hamradio Pages--CATV 1/2" Hardline Connector

Make hardline coax connectors

Connectors for 3/4 inch Aluminum hard line.


A lot of guys just ignore the 1.5:1 SWR or you can trim the overall length for best match.You need an exact multiple of 1/2 wavelengths of cable to repeat the antenna impedance. Using an antenna analyzer makes this easy. This is one of the extremely few times that coax length actually does matter when it comes to impedance matching.


Good stuff right there :)
 
Trimming your coax to precise 1/2 wavelength multiples is really rather easy and requires no tape measure, velocity factor or calculations. All you need is an SWR meter or antenna analyzer, dummy load and coaxial "T" adaptor. Put one connector on the 75 ohm cable and leave the other end bare and cut flush. Attach the "T" adaptor to the output of your SWR meter or analyzer. Plug the random length of 75 ohm cable into one side of the "T" and the dummy load into the other side.

Prune the bare open end of the 75 ohm cable until you have a flat SWR at the desired frequency. The 1/2 wavelength multiple of coax is going to reflect the infinite impedance of the cut open end back to the meter. Since this infinite impedance is in parallel with the perfect 50 ohm resistive dummy load, we have a flat SWR when the coax length is correct.
 
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That method works well. I have tuned 1/4 wave harmonic stub filters that way. I simply tuned a 1/2 wave length of cable and cut it in half to make two stubs.
 
Trimming your coax to precise 1/2 wavelength multiples is really rather easy and requires no tape measure, velocity factor or calculations. All you need is an SWR meter or antenna analyzer, dummy load and coaxial "T" adaptor. Put one connector on the 75 ohm cable and leave the other end bare and cut flush. Attach the "T" adaptor to the output of your SWR meter or analyzer. Plug the random length of 75 ohm cable into one side of the "T" and the dummy load into the other side.

Prune the bare open end of the 75 ohm cable until you have a flat SWR at the desired frequency. The 1/2 wavelength multiple of coax is going to reflect the infinite impedance of the cut open end back to the meter. Since this infinite impedance is in parallel with the perfect 50 ohm resistive dummy load, we have a flat SWR when the coax length is correct.

I use this method every time I tune a antenna system. I always wondered if it would work with 75ohm coax!
 

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