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Ham Radio

75 ohm CATV hardline

[Today’s run: rest day  1/2 mile walk]

Over the weekend I was given enough 1/2-inch CATV hardline coax to get from my radio shack to the tower and up to my 2-meter SSB/CW antenna.

I’ve been doing some research today about how to use it.  It is a different impedance than what is usually used with ham radio equipment, 75 ohm instead of 50 ohm.  Some websites say you can just ignore that.

And then there is the problem of connecting to the rotating antenna on the tower.  Hardline doesn’t like to be flexed.  I think for that issue I will either procure some flexible 75 ohm coax, or use a 1/2 wavelength of 50 ohm so that it will couple correctly to the antenna.

I don’t know yet if I will have to retune the antenna.  I guess I may have to get it down from the tower and give it a try on the ground.

The benefit of this stuff is low loss.  More of my signal will make it to the antenna and radiate out.  Less of it will get burned up in the trip to the antenna.