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Originally Posted by Nascarken
I THOUGHT THAT WHEN YOU. USE A MAST MOUNT, AMPLIFIER THEY SAY, YOU SHOULD USE 18Gage solid copper RG 6 CLABLE,AND when using VHF yes or no,on this subject, not to copper, C ,steal CABLE? 73 And have a good day,
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The signal loss for coax with a copper clad steel center conductor is about the same as the signal loss for coax with a sold copper center conductor. This is because the signal only travels on the outside of the center conductor, which is called the "skin effect."
For both types of coax, the loss for VHF is much less than for UHF, which is about 6 dB per 100 feet for UHF.
However, the type of center conductor is important when you use a preamp, because the DC current for the preamp uses the whole cross section of the center conductor. The resistance of the copper clad steel conductor is greater than the resistance of the solid copper conductor, so the voltage drop for the preamp will be greater with the copper clad steel center conductor.
The general rule is up to 100 feet is OK for copper clad steel, and solid copper is OK up to 200 feet.
That rule is for preamps that use a voltage of about 15 to 20 volts.
If you have one of the new preamps that use USB 5V like the Winegard Boost LNA 200, the voltage drop becomes more critical.
I haven't seen any test results that show how low the voltage can go before the preamp performance is affected.
That would be a good experiment for someone to do.