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Coaxial Cable Comparison

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Wanttaja

Sky Savant
Joined
Sep 15, 2013
Messages
2,995
Location
Seattle, WA
A while ago, when I did new cables for the radio and transponder on my Fly Baby, I used the traditional RG-58U coaxial cable.

Earlier this year, I redid the radio antenna cables. Saw that RG-400 was now the standard, so I bought some.

This weekend I was working on a non-antenna project where I thought some coaxial cable would be an easy way to achieve some shielding. Figured I'd use up some of my old RG-58 instead of my fancy new RG-400.

Stripped the end of the RG-58...and realized the difference. The picture shows the RG-58 with a black outer layer, and the RG-400's copper-colored.

1698007614462.png
These two cables were stripped with the same tool. Note how much braid is on the RG-58 vs. the RG-400.

Probably at the wavelengths associated with aircraft comms the '58 is adequate. But I SURE like the shielding on the RG-400.

Now, this might be a characteristic of the particular vendor that made the RG-58; possibly coax from another site would be better. RG-58 and BNC connectors are used a lot in the computer world.

For my airplane? The -400, thank you....

Ron Wanttaja
 
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