Not so sure. He did not say it was a long term outdoor installation. He was not transmitting. My guess is that there were problems with the cable itself.
Even brand new cable deteriorates if not stored properly, and he did not say it was brand new.
Folks, unless you are setting up a professional, for profit (if that’s possible) installation, go easy on yourselves. Use quad shield RG6 from Walmart.
I used to worry about RG58, RG8, etc. for my ham station. I went with RG6, disregarding the impedance mismatch, and could not be happier. Is it perfect? Of course not. Is it a show stopper? No, the show is still going on.
I guess it depends how the crocodile clips were used. Still the cable is 5dB loss per 100m which is not better or much better than RG8 especially considering we are not using 100m.
The potential loss crocodile clips cause far outweigh any positives of the cable.
Would be nice to build a coco antenna though has a nice wave speed
no definitely not new, and who knows where and how long was stored. was given to me as better option to create a ‘collinear’ antenna, but no joke this cable. very hard to work with.
This is good advise for outdoor installations. One more thing: Dont use cheap twist-on type F-connector for outdoor use. Use better quality weather/water resistant F-connectors. These are slightly costlier, but you need only 2, so it is ok.
I use only normal (1 braid + 1 foil) RG6 which I purchase from Dollar Store, 100 ft coil for Can $8.99 , but my installation is totally indoor, even the antenna is inside my apartment, so no problems of corrosion, sunlight, water ingress etc.
Speaking of outdoor cables, one of my relatives installed a satellite dish antenna and a receiver with a certain company.
She was complaining that she finds water on her TV table after that install, and when she called the company that did the install, they laughed at her.
When I took a look at the cable, sure enough, rain water from outside would seep inside the cable all the way down inside the house and leak at the connector. But this only when it was raining outside, so the tech couldn’t see it normally. Bad connector job outside.
Wow…what’s the name of the place. I’ll stop by next time I’m in Toronto.
There used to be an excellent Dollar Store on the northeast corner of Lawrence and Midland in Scarborough. Not sure if they still exist, but there must be many others in the ‘big smoke’.
That price was in 2013 when I started this hobby and purchased it. Must be at least 30%~50% higher now.
I did not purchase another coil since then as I have not yet consumed all of it. Initially I used about 45 feet to connect antenna near large window and dvbt plugged into desktop in another room. The balance 55 feet was consumed in making a dozen or so failed Coco antennas . Afterwards I purchased RPi, and placed these just below antennas, consuming about 20 feet out of 45 ft original run. I still have about 25 feet which I coiled and stored.
Have you tried making one from known high quality coax where you can be sure of the velocity factor.
I pay a bit more than $8.99 for 100 feet but i can look up the Vf and have a fairly high confidence that it will be correct and uniform along the whole coax piece.
I’m not getting it right 100% of the time but I’m probably better than 50%
Now that’s an idea! I’m thinking about how’d to go about it. Maybe use a machinist’s lathe to cut and strip the segments. From my limited experience making a coco, the hardest part is connecting the segments together. I’d think the sheer mass of copper of the LDF45 would make soldering a challenge without overheating the dielectric. I’d have to think of some way to join those segments together.
I’ve had some success with Heliax-based coco’s. Inspiration was from user 1090mhz and I see that the link to his site has just been posted. (Thanks abcd567). The quality of the cable is very high and the specs are consistent, which can make for repeatable results.
Having tried FSJ1, LDF2 AND LDF4, I’ve settled on LDF2 as my favourite for coco’s. Although I got one completed, and am still using it, soldering LDF4 with ‘only’ a 240 watt soldering iron was difficult.
The 3/8 inch LDF2 can be nicely soldered with a 150 watt iron and isn’t quite as bulky to manage.
I’ll get some pictures put together and will post them.
He used nick name "1090 mhz" in FlightRadar24 forum, but in Flightaware forum he is member with his real name @PeterFairlie. He lives in the same city where I live.
So I’ve settled on going with a single run of RG11, but I have some questions:
Regarding the type N male connector needed to connect to the FA antenna, what impedance (center pin diameter) do I need?
Knowing the ideal installation should have minimal connections, what should I do on the ProStick end? With semi-rigid nature of the RG11, I’m thinking about using a type N on it and then a 6”-9” N-to-SMA whip to the dongle. Thoughts?
What about a SMA connector directly on the RG11? I couldn’t find any connectors on eBay that specifically mentioned RG11. Any ideas?
Some folks are advocating adding a LNA to the setup. All of the ones that I’ve seen use type F connectors. I would then have to adapt from N to F at the antenna, then add a bias-t and power injector, and then F-to-SMA. The LNA seems like a lot of work. Worth it?
This is true if you use Satellite TV Amplifiers like this one.
Satellite TV / Dish systems almost exclusively use RG6 & F-connectors, both are low cost and easy to install. In addition the RG6 coax and its connectors are designed for GHz frequencies, perfectly matching 1090 MHz.
When Wireless communication started, soon 50 Ohms became its defacto standard, and all components were standardized on 50 ohms. The HAM/Armature Radio followed this established system.
When TV started, initially it was only VHF Channels 1 to 13. Its standard antenna was a folded dipole Yagi with 300 Ohm impedance. TV adopted 300 Ohm Twin-lead to connect antenna to Receiver, and receiver were designed for 300 ohms. As a result 300 ohm became the defacto standard of TV.
Later when UHF TV started, due to higher frequencies involved, a Coaxial cable was used, and a 75 ohm impedance was found suitable. 75 ohms has a 1:4 ratio with 300 ohm system and a transformation from 300 to 75 ohms was very easy by a 1:2 ratio transformer. As a result 75 ohms established itself as defacto standard for Free to Air and Satellite TV.
As the Dongle (DVB-T) is actually designed for TV reception, it’s input impedance is 75 ohm
Those who strongly advocate 50 ohms system against 75 ohm system, RG6 and F-connectors, have no logical and valid reason to reject 75 ohms system except that they are accustomed to 50 ohms, N and SMA connectors.
i love this discussion forum but being new to this spend a lot of time confused (being confused is what happens when you retire and look for a hobby). the RTL SDR blog V3 spec says 50 ohms input impedance
. Afterwards I purchased RPi, and placed these just below antennas, consuming about 20 feet out of 45 ft original run. I still have about 25 feet which I coiled and stored. 
