How many feet of coax?

[arnauts]

Hi there, I have an old Radioshack TRC-440 base station sitting around that I want to hook up. Unfortunately, the only place that I'm permitted to set up an antenna is 85-90 feet away from the location that the radio is set up at. Would it hurt to run this length of coax from the shed I'm mounting it on to the location the radio will sit on? I will post some pictures and some specs. on the equipment I'll be using:
My Radio, Realistic TRC 440: (I got it for free)

The two antennas I'm considering using: 101 inch steel whip, adjustable, 85 inch fiberglass, non adjustable. What do you think is better for a base setup?

The peak of this shed is where I'll be mounting it to:


A few things I'm concerned about are: what can I use to mount the steel whip to the fascia board of the shed? I'd need something reasonably
heavy duty.
Also, regarding a ground for the antenna, what gauge of wire would I need to run to the ground, and if I just hammered a piece of re bar into
the clay, it would work fine, wouldn't it?

Thankyou very much, I'll be checking back soon.

[231]

Welcome to the forum...and the hobby.

First off, there shouldn't be any problem running the coax that far...provided you use decent quality and the proper type. Secondly you won't want to use the white antenna. That looks like a VHF antenna...totally different than CB (which is HF or "high frequency") band. The 102" SS whip will work, but you must have a counterpoise. A simple ground wire will probably not be enough. A simple steel bar attached to the side and a mount might or might not be enough counterpoise to work...but you can easily make a wire antenna that would work (and no doubt work better than the 102" SS whip provided it's installed correctly). Google "how to make a dipole antenna" and you'll find tons of links on that.

I'd highly suggest spending some time looking at the [Please login or register to view this link] portion of the forum and do some reading up. The antenna is literally 90% of your overall performance (in my opinion)...and if not done properly will likely cause damage to your old radio.

In the mean time you'll need a couple more things...an SWR (standing wave ratio) meter and jumper to tune the antenna with.

Good luck.

[DX47]

231 gives some great advice. The antenna is crucial, the 102" whip would be the best, and looks like it is the only CB antenna you have anyway one thing you could do is mount it to the peak of the building there, then run 2 wires as a counterpoise down each side. These wires will attach to the bracket itself, the part that will be touching the shield of the coax. The wires will be to be about 8.5 feet long. It would be better if you could have 3 or 4 wires though, but it would be tough from looking at your setup. Is there a way you can get the antenna mounted up higher on a mast? Or maybe a short mast with a real base antenna like a Imax 2000 with a good ground rod driven in near the pole and attached.

I don't know how you plan to run the coax, but if you need to bury it, google "bury-flex" it is a low loss cable that will will not be damaged due to soil acid if you decide to bury the line to hide it.

[Mr RadioActive]

WELCOME, and nice yard by the way.......to answer where I think nobody commented (it is nearly 1am) when your antenna is situated, use RG8X for that length. if you want to spend less, you can go with mini 8x, but the RG8 would be better. Also why not just buy a inexpensive base antenna like a A99?

[BigT]

Just my 2 cents. I tried several set ups first (mag mount, 102 whip, dipole) and finally settled on a Max 2000 (situation much like yours) and it seems to work very well for me.

Bottom line is to enjoy and have fun with what ever you decide to try. Experimentation is one of the best parts of this hobby in my opinion....