Ralph Mowery wrote:

"Rob" wrote in message
...
One ham said when he did he could tell the differance. I just don't see
that going from about .4 db or less of loss to .15 db of loss on 80
meters
is going to be noticed.

But what when he was working on 70 centimeters instead of 80 meters?
Then it would be a large difference.

I should have made it clear that this is for 80 meters only, no higher band.
Also he did not say what kind of differance he noticed, just that he did.

Most of my work is 2 meters and higher and good transmission there is a
must. I just don't have the operating time on the low bands to know if that
extra .2 db would make any diffreance there. That is 2/10 of a db.

On 70 centimeters that would not make any difference either, but on 70
the difference is more than that.

On 80 meters you should use a 2x20m dipole with open line feeder.

Coax is only good for driving an unbalanced 50 ohm load, which is
practical on VHF and above but not on HF bands where you are going to
use a tuner.