[Public-List] VHF cable

[David A. Bardsley]

   What you're going to find with coax is a number of trade-offs, the most
   notable being physical size versus loss and bend radius.   Everything
   else being equal a larger cable will have lower loss and be more
   difficult to route and generally work with.  You can pick the highest
   quality cable and connectors then break/kink/pinch the dielectric
   during installation resulting in a significantly reduced output power
   and reception quality.
   To be clear, although cable and connectors are important the dominant
   factor with VHF marine radio communication quality is antenna
   placement.  Yes, a damaged cable with water ingress will, pardon the
   pun, rain on your parade, but nothing will work around poor antenna
   location.
   Do you need the full expected 20nm range with a mast head
   installation?  For years I've only used a portable and think of a mast
   head antenna as a luxury.
   A few decibels either way isn't going to make much of a difference in
   signals quality - just ensure no matter where you put the antenna that
   the coax is not damaged (during installation or otherwise) and that
   water cannot get into the cable.
   Dave
   Ginseng #574