Special Coax Cable Type - Can RG6 be used instead?

[ZandarKoad]

Here's the cable I need for my application:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FICJ8S/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

It has two special ends that I don't think I've ever seen before. I would like to know if anyone has ever seen terminating tools and terminating ends for both of the ends on that cable. One end is "Reverse SMA Female" and the other is "N-Type Male" (I think).

Also, could I use regular quad shield solid copper coax in place of that thin little cable they use? Or is there some special reason why it's so thin? I'd like to make custom cable lengths ranging from 15' to 50' or 75'.

And just so you know, this question is satellite related. I'm using a satellite dish as a wifi booster. It's been on my to-do list for years and years, but now my parents actually need one for decent internet.

 

[Anole]

Is that RG172...174?

I went down this road 10+ years ago.
And there is a better answer.

The thin coax is to fit the SMA connector.
RG6 won't fit.
You could make up runs of RG6 with more standard connectors.
Then, use (expensive) adapters to convert to SMA or type N.
No special crimpers required, probably lowering the overall cost.

One of the better solutions I found, was to use USB wifi transceivers.
You mount the whole thing at the dish focus.
Cabling is then just relatively easy USB (I used cat5).

The other solution was to mount the entire router on a pole to catch the signal.
Extra wires in the cat5 can carry (unregulated) power to the router.
Wasn't using dishes in that case.

Im sure some combination of these two ideas will provide a simple solution.
I don't believe in running RF over coax when there other ways.

 

[ZandarKoad]

You could make up runs of RG6 with more standard connectors.
Then, use (expensive) adapters to convert to SMA or type N.
No special crimpers required, probably lowering the overall cost.

You mean like this?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040R7QL0/?tag=satell01-20

 

[Bongu]

For a cable like this, I would not screw around with adapters. I would just order a cable from http://www.pasternack.com/sma-to-n-cable-assemblies-category.aspx or a similar company and be done with it. You might pay a little bit for the pre-made cable, but you will have half the potential failure points. Will make troubleshooting easier if anything arises. if there is a problem with the live link, here is a munged link: hXXp://www.pasternack.com/sma-to-n-cable-assemblies-category.aspx

edit -- I didnt realize your link was to the cable assembly you actually need. That is a decent price for that special purpose microwave frequency cable. The company I posted specializes in microwave frequency cabling and will probably cost a little more than the amazon one.

 

[navychop]

Every connection point/adapter with degrade the signal slightly.


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[pacificrim]

Radio antenna cable is usually 50ohm and cable tv / satellite is 75ohm.

 

[wallyhts]

Radio antenna cable is usually 50ohm and cable tv / satellite is 75ohm.

Yup that's 50 ohm cable don't waste your time or money trying to use 75 ohm cable on a wifi radio. (You will burn it up) (Google VSWR and SWR)

 

[ZandarKoad]

Awesome, thanks guys! Yeah, I forgot they had different resistance charactaristics. I'll stick with the premade runs.

 

[ZandarKoad]

Yup that's 50 ohm cable don't waste your time or money trying to use 75 ohm cable on a wifi radio. (You will burn it up) (Google VSWR and SWR)

Wow, after reading about VSWR it makes me want to test my custom antenna (a properly placed, properly sized copper wire inside a cantenna attached at the focal point of a parabolic dish) to see what it's VSWR specs are. I mean, I am designing the transmitting antenna with specific dimentions for the frequencies it will be transmitting / receiving. So I guess that's good enough, and a VSWR check would just be a quality control verification...?

 

[Anole]

Nix on long coax run

Check the loss on that little cable for a 75 foot run! :down

Where are you getting the wifi signal from?
A router?
If you put it on the back side of the dish, you'd only have a few feet of lossy coax cable to deal with!
(see my previous post for even better idea!) :up

 

[wallyhts]

Check the loss on that little cable for a 75 foot run! :down

Yup I would put the radio at the antenna and run cat5 for power and data.

 

[ZandarKoad]

Yup I would put the radio at the antenna and run cat5 for power and data.

Reportedly, these directional wifi antennas like their Line of Sight very much. So I'm thinking of putting the antenna up very high on the roof. Not really practical to put a router out there.

It looks like this type of cable would have a dB drop of merely 2.26 on a 33' run at 2500 MHz. That is fantastic, and should be plenty long enough to reach from the antenna to the router. Not only that, but a 500' spool is only $250 or so. I may try to find connectors and terminating tools for that type of cable... (for the record, in case that Ebay link goes bad, it's "Ultra Low Loss 400 grade cable - RFC400®". Similar to LMR400® and Cinta400®).

I already bought two of these, even though I couldn't find any performance information. The box it came in has specs, but nothing about dB loss at a given frequency.