"bob" wrote in message
...
Loss is loss. If you lose 3db in your feed line, that's 1/2 your signal
gone, whether you're transmitting it or receiving does not matter.



Ralph Mowery wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

Does the length of coax decrease performance in scanning as much as
when you are transmitting?

I can put an antenna in my attic where I will only have about 5 feet of
coax. (My scanner is upstairs) I could mount an outside antenna on top
of my tv tower at about 30 feet, but would need to run about 50 feet of
coax. The total elevation if it was in my attic would be 20 feet or so.
(But I do have alot of insulation that might block the signal). At 20
feet

you get about 4.4 miles times about 1.3 for about 5.8 miles to the radio
horizon. At 30 feet you get 5.4 times 1.3 for 7.1 miles. YOu will have
to
do the same to the other station's antenna and add the two numbers to
find
the total distance. So as you can see the height is important. Five
watts
will go over 100 miles if the antennas can see each other so power or
loss
in coax is not too important(within reason) if you can gain height.


Go for the heigth. You will loose some signal, but you will still have
more
than you need if you use atleast rg-6 coax or beter. On vhf and higher
you
take the square root of the height multiplied by a "fudge factor" to find
the distance.


That's not the point. A 6 db gain amp at the antenna overcomes that 3 db
lose in the cable.