On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:23:26 GMT, "JB" wrote:

Gee it's too bad he didn't have a bunch of CATV hardline and a Motrac. All
of this would be real simple.

I recall that there was a commercial AS "fire engine" antenna that never
bothered with the matching at all because adding all the extra hardware for
matching, wouldn't have justified the potential losses that might be
introduced. Of course the main advantage of the antenna was that it could
be elevated without need for reflecting plane or radials and thus wouldn't
poke eyes out or get tangled. Otherwise a regular mobile mount or base
radial kit would be advantageous.

Yep. However, they recommended using 75 ohm coax cable. The loss of
equal lengths of similar size 75 ohm coax is less than 50 ohm. For
example:
RG-58c/u 0.20dB/meter at 150 Mhz (cheap 50 ohms coax)
LMR-240 0.09dB/meter at 150 Mhz (much better 50 ohm coax)
RG-6/u 0.07dB/meter at 150 Mhz (75 ohm CATV coax)

However, if you wanna run 50 ohm coax, the mismatch loss at the 75 ohm
antenna is about:
reflection_coef = (75-50)/(50+75)= 0.20
voltage = 1 - (0.2^2) = 0.96
20 * log(0.96) = 0.35 dB mismatch loss.
No big deal.

Hmmmm...
0.35 dB / 0.02dB/meter = 17.5 meters
At 17.5 meters, the losses of the 50 and 75 coax systems are
identical. Beyond 17.5 meters of coax, the 75 ohm coax delivers more
power.

I've been using RG-6/u for 2.4GHz wireless for quite a while. The
main incentive is that I can get the 75 ohm coax quite cheaply. For a
while, Hyperlink (http://www.hyperlinktech.com) had a rooftop 2.4Ghz
amplifier that was fed with 75 ohm coax. Alvarion/Breezecom also used
75 ohm coax in some of their BreezeAccess LB radios.

Someone eventually asks why 50 or 75 ohms. See:
http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/why50ohms.cfm

Motrac? Those are 30-40 years ancient. I used them for boat anchors.
Back then, I preferred GE radios:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/Old%20Repeaters/index.html



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558