Will Coiling Your Coax Change The SWR Or Damage Your Radio? Is Coiled Coax Bad For Your Radio?
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- Опубликовано: 22 мар 2022
- For years the online "experts" have been telling us that if we coil up our unused coax cable it will damage the radio by creating a high-SWR . In this video I test that to see if the "experts" are right. I test two types of coax, one very low quality, inexpensive coax cable, and a higher quality LMR400 coax cable. I test both using a prototype Wouxon KG-S88G GMRS radio (because thats what I had laying around) at 4 to 5 watts.
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THIS IDIOT DON'T KNOW WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT
With all of the data and details explaining exactly how I " _don't know what I'm talking about_ " that you have provided, I'm sure that nobody is going to point at you and laugh.
PS: You should look into fixing your Caps-Lock button and maybe check into investing in a grammer-checker.
Says the grown man typing in all CAPS... At the legal GMRS wattage we're using, "SHEILDED" cables don't act as a choke. At least not enough to measure with the sensitivity of general equipment (SWR or RF meters). Working as an electrical engineer in the industrial field, we coil RF cables all the time with ZERO adverse effects.
That statement by its self, (as it is) makes you sound stupid.
Does typing with caps lock on make your opinion valid, or is that how you tell everyone you are stupid without saying you are stupid?
...asking for a friend 😅
Glodflangeler6746 looks like a lady's man
When a cable is shielded well enough, one would't expect any difference in SWR. And you proved it in the test. Great video.
All I can say is that I worked with everything from HF to XHF and all the frequencies in between during my 17+ years in the Air Force and most of the time our cables were coiled both during use and in storage. Never had an issue.
But that was military cable... it was "special". It cost 5x too much. ;) TY for your Service.
Awesome. I love it when the video description has so much detail. I had no idea LMR400 existed and can be used for mobile application. Though one would have to think out the routing a bit better than when using the cheap stuff. Thank you again for your awesome presentation and fact producing.
I was at the motorcycle shop and one of the techs was having trouble with a CB installation. Being a Happy Ham, I offered my assistance.
I noticed that his antenna was about 10 inches long. 10 inches may be good for some things, but not CB antennas. He said that he had read that he should “trim” the antenna until he had minimum SWR on channel 20. He kept trimming, but the SWR indicator needle stayed pegged at max. Note: He did not have a cool digital FARSOMETER.
Being a “Radio Expert”, I suspected a feed line problem. We removed the seat. He had not only coiled the coax, he had tie wrapped it into a dog bone. The ends of the dog bone were as tightly bent as he could make them.
We got another antenna kit an coiled the coax into a 6” diameter coil. A couple snips on the antenna and it was at an SWR of 1:1 on channel 20.
As you have said, it is fine to coil coax, as long as the radius is not too small. A radius of 10 x coax diameter is what we use in aircraft installation.
A coil of coax will act as an RF choke to signals on the shield, not the signals on the center conductor. As hams we will often have a few turns coil just below the antenna connector. This prevents RF energy coming into your radio shack via the shield.
Finally, if coiling the coax damaged it, it would be bad when you bought it off the spool at the store.
73,
Happy Ham
This really clear things up for me... I have been concerned about this very issue for some time. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.
Thank you for being a calm voice in the wild world of so called experts.
I am so glad you made this video because I am dealing with this right now I installed a cb in my jeep and bought a antenna with a long coax cable so I needed to watch this 😀 thank you
The excess cable in my truck on my ham radio that I hacked to also work on GMRS has talked many many fars and it is in fact coiled. One day I talked 85 miles to a repeater. Folks that's in Florida. Not like King Randy's perfectly perched paradigm of power packing phase pinching fars producing propagation punch!
Randy That means I have to go buy longer cable so I have enough to coil. Thanks for the step-by-step help applying for my GMRS lic. Your right (as always) the FCC web site is a trip. Now waiting for both Radio and call sign.
Hey, I started as a ham a few years ago and got turned off by sad hams. Have found a better group and am back in it again and got my GRMS while I am at it so i can convince my friends to get radios too. Thanks for being no BS and showing me GMRS
Thanks for the video. I have coiled coax for years. I ran a Dentron 2kw and never had a issue. It works for me. Jmo
New to the channel. Liked and subbed! Love the cut of your jib Sir! Keep 'em coming! Need more channels like this.
I have been a Ham for 35 years and I really like the noun “confucklement”
You learn something new every day
this noun is a new one to me... that being said... i wrote it down and will now practice using this noun... thanks for expanding my knowledge!!!! P.S.... this should really piss off the wife...lol.
Me three! I love tongue in cheek sarcasm. Well done!!!
Confucklement , i hope there is no censorship laws on this noun, as i am going to be using this a lot.. hell i may even get it to take hold down here and if i get enuf followers, maybe it will make Websters Dictionary.....Love this guy. i have learnt so much...
I thought it was an adjective?
Awesome!! Nice putting the old argument to rest. I have mine coiled and been that way for awhile at my small “base station.”
Thank you for testing these configurations! Great vid! Keep’m coming!
Thanks for this, I was just going to install a GMRS antenna on my truck and wasn't sure how to handle the 4 feet of extra coax. Dig your shirts!
I love sarcastical learning, hats off
I come here for the Sad Ham Trolling and almost always laugh a GREAT deal. Learn a little sometimes, laugh a lot all the time! Good Results and not surprised by the results or the Sad Ham reactions.
You’re sense of humor is 100% perfect 🤣🤣🤣. You missed your calling as a “heckling back at the crowd comedian” , don’t ever change !! Always enjoy your videos 😎
Newly subscribed here and I got to say, I'm loving your videos, I've been personally interested and currently am studying to get my license and finally get into HAM radios, ect. Used to be a CATV Technician for a while and have been curious about experimenting and trying out and see how different coaxial types can affect attenuation, signal loss, signal gain, ect. Keep rolling out great content!😀
Like the shirt!! The “loading” symbol looks like a ferrite toriod with coax wrapped around. 😂
Thank you for the video. Coiling up your extra cable not cause high SWR which you just proved.
I have built a lot of antennas and have coiled up close to the antenna connection with certain
antennas to prevent RF from coming back to the radio on the outer shield. I have never heard
coiling up the cable caused high swr or lowered the power output. Keep up the good videos.
Maybe you coiled it the wrong direction? Sort of like how water flows clockwise or ant-clockwise, down the toilet, depending on the hemisphere? I think you should have stated the direction of the coil!
Thanks for the test!👍
I have to admit, sometimes my cable shrinks a little bit when it gets cold.
I just pull on mine to warm it up. much better transmission!!!
🤣
Then buy a thermal jock strap. 😝
@@toml.8210 Chestnuts roasting on an open fire........
Just squeeze it very hard at the base.
Great job as always. Actually very informative, as always you are the man.
Thanks for your confidence!
Good test. I am always reconfiguring my antennas and taking them portable. I have pre-cut coax cable lengths. I always make a couple of coils at the base of the antennas as an RF choke. Sometimes the coax is too long between antennas and radio. I just coil up the excess coax. I usually use resonant antennas. Sometimes I have an auto tuner mounted at the feed point of the antenna. I have never had an SWR problem based on coax that was "too long" or coiled up. So much for "the experts."
It is not the SWR that could be a problem but attenuation, ie loss of signal strength between radio and antenna. The attenuation is more critical for UHF and VHF frequencies depending on type of coax used and its length. You can find attenuation charts on the internet, or they are included in coax manufacturers' specs. Coiling a coax cable does not appear to affect attenuation in any signifcant and critical, at least in real world situtions like you describe.
Great test Randy
Randy, you forgot to add that “if you try this at home, your fars may vary” 😂🤣😂.
Thank You, Sensei, for another informative and educational video, proving once again not all the experts, "✌️✌️", are truly, who they say they are... 👌
You are the man, thank you for being there
Amazing shtuff you do Randy. Once again cleared that up & kept me laughing, well done.
Thanks. Helpful and funny.
Great Video! love your content!
I love this channel!!!
I'm really liking that KG-S88G!
OMG 😲 you connected your HT to an aftermarket antenna, "GMRS ANTENNAS CAN NOT BE REMOVED," 🤪🤣🤭🤫😎 great video
Thanks...got that sorted...Next!!!
Proof that Coiled Coax isn't as bad as Moist Coax. Moist.
Best vid I've seen in a long time.
Great T-shirt!
In fact it's common among hams to coil up the coax to limit stray RF on the outside of the braid. Or "hot mike" as some older hams would call it. There is no danger involved coiling up coaxial cable, except for mechanical reasons as "minimum bending radius". In fact a big roll of e.g. RG58 with infinite length will be a perfect 50 ohm load. But of course the longer the coax cable between the radio and antenna is, the greater is the loss of RF energy. Best 73 from Ham Anonymous.
Great videos.😂 Thank you for the information.
I coil my coaxial cable in knots. I also slammed the car door on it.
I have 3 coax's running from the roof through the top of the doors to get inside of the car, been that way for 8 years, no problems.
Heck, since the beginning of time truckers have been running coax through the wing windows on the doors to get from the antenna to the cb, no issues!
I understand your frustration with people. Some days, I feel like Luke Wilsons character in the movie Idiocracy!
All I can say is.... Keep up the good work and keep those videos coming.
I'm no expert! But I'm thinking: unwanted inductance? I always uncoil because I have been told it can fry the radio! I always uncoil extension leads as my test and tag teacher always said! But with Radios? That S why I'm watching your videos! Btw my youngest son loves your channel. He's always watching ever since I got 2 baofeng uv5r iii. Nice to see someone doing real tests! Not throwing myths around. Cheers from Australia 🙂👍👍👍
My extra LMR 400 UltraFlex is coiled up under the passenger seat in my Chevy Tahoe and my radio works just fine.
Great video but lacking Chris who, is the REAL star of the channel!
All kidding aside, informative video Randy. Thank you!
OMG I love your videos! Best on the inter webs! But, more importantly, I need that T-shirt. LOL. Please share where you got it. And thank you for the great content.
Look in the info section where it says "like my shirt? Click here to get one"
Thank you!
Thanks!
Extraordinary content sir! 73 de AC6GM!
I was tuning my buddies antenna that he ran through his old satellite TV cable in his walls. He had a coil of about 4ft and it actually made it worse if he uncoiled it lol. Oh BTW thank you very much for the step by step on how to get your GMRS license, that website is horrendous.
Love your videos, as a tech person I have to agree that winding and unwinding cables continually is not good for the cable. With network and power cables we extended the life of our cables by not twisting the cable as it was coiled them up.
As for avoiding winding up cable by cutting it and terminating the cable has the potential to introduce other issues if not done correctly
Asked my wife to help me coil my cable and she just rolled her eyes! 🤷
Because of an aged and broken SO239, I stopped using my coax and now I have lost it 🚫🍆💦
🤣🤣
Funny, she rushed over and helped me out when i asked her. Guess your lil inch worm doesnt excite her
I read that and walked straight in from the garage to use it.
Also got an eye roll.
Experiment proven
Appreciate this video
I'm not sure about this, Randy. For me, this subject hits home, emotionally. See, back in the mid-80s I used to pal around with these two guys; Ray and Peter. Both guys were really smart, both had multiple PhDs in various fields of science. One day, my friend Ray decided that he was going to coil up some RG58 and attach it to a ground plane antenna WITH NO GROUND PLANE WHATSOEVER. I think both of them had been drinking heavily that day because they had just lost their grant at the college they were were working at. The dean at the college, dean Yeager firmly believed that if you coiled up coaxial cable and transmitted a radio signal through that coil to an antenna, a portal to another dimension would be opened up. Well, anyway, Pete thought that was total bunk and so did Ray, which is most likely why they lost their grants and their jobs. The next thing you know, everyone is drunk, unemployed, depressed and throwing caution to the wind by coiling coaxial cable, attaching it to antennas and transmitting through it. Sure enough, a portal to another dimension opened up and a demon named Goser came through it and tried to destroy the world as we know it. Ray and Pete knew that the wouldn't be able to battle Goser by themselves, so they enlisted the help of the smartest man they know; a colleague by the name of Egon. Egon had a radical idea about how to defeat Goser. He theorized that if they all crossed their antennas and directed their radio signals in unison towards Goser, the SWR would flow both backwards and forwards at the same time, thus closing the interdimensional portal, sending Goser back to her dimension of origin and saving the world as we know it (starting with lower Manhattan). The plan wasn't without risks, however. Egon cautioned them that if their timing was off in any way, their radios would melt down in their hands and everyone would be killed at the speed of light. After Egon was through speaking, Peter jumped up and exclaimed "I LOVE THIS PLAN!! I'M HAPPY TO BE A PART OF IT!!! LET'S DO IT!!!" He then picked up his Boefang UV5R (knowing full well that it's illegal to transmit on GMRS frequencies with a UV5R) pointed it at Goser and grunted "Let's show this pre-historic bitch how we do things downtown." Ray and Egon and I joined in, crossing our antennas and directing the crossed radio streams right at our nemesis. Luckily, the plan worked perfectly. There was a tremendous explosion and we were all thrown back about 20 feet and severely burned. Goser vanished and the world was safe from the trouble we caused. Other than that, the only other consequences for the recklessness of coiling coaxial cable and then transmitting radio signals through it, was the fact that the FCC jailed all of us for 8 years for transmitting on GMRS frequencies through a Boefang UV5R. I have to tell you, every day of those 8 years in Leavenworth all I could think about was how stupid we were to violate the FCC rules about the Baofeng UV5R, how incredibly stupid we were for coiling our coaxial cables and how lucky we all were that the outcome wasn't any worse.
Wait.. So Goser was female? Was she hot?
The creativity for something like this. Just amazing. Good read
@@TheNotaRubicon Would anybody goose her if she wasn't hot?
@@TheNotaRubicon superhot like those demons that stick out really farz
There's just one little flaw with this story. There weren't any Baofeng UV-5Rs back in the mid 80s. You almost had us all fooled.
Thank you. That was a fun experiment to see, Randy. 73 kc4i
Coiled up on your bench is not the same as coiled up under the seat of your car. Under the seat in your car are billions of asstrons which react with fars and create sadhamz.
Good one randy ... next do the oh but you cant cut your coax it has to be an exact length ...ive watched a dozen or more vids on installs on 4wd and almost all of them say cutting your cable will effect the swr .. i laugh ive installed hundreds and cut cabes to fit never effected the swr ..
Nice video and test. How's your GMRS reoeater doing? Any updates?
I'm trying to get into making antennas (for UHF CB - 477mButtHertz) & trying to have prove you don't have to spend a princes ransom on shop bought antenna, I was trying to figure out how to increase fars & lower SWR with chokes, baluns & ugly baluns, aka coils of co-ax. Still only vaguely understand the theory, but strongly suspect that's how you scored the SWR of 1.00
Keep up the great edutainment.
Wow. I really hate cutting coax and soldiering pl239's on. I'm going to try this and see what I get. Thanks for the video
@@ZiggleFingers who makes them.
You should never ever roll up your coax cable. Having the electrons go around in a circle slows them down. That is why top fuel dragsters are much faster than NASCAR cars. Top fuel dragsters go in a straight line, whereas NASCAR go around in circles, slowing them down. Not only does it slow them down, but the electrons going in circles might get them dizzy and disorientated and they may lose their way. So always run your coax in a straight line, even if it means you have to put your antenna in your neighbors yard.
I bet you are a old time ham operator.
@hogcat858 I guess your sarcasm meter indicator light is malfunctioned or you got mixed up with the idiot light
Honestly never heard of this, but it sorta seems plausible with crappy cables... Looking forward to this video
Woah, 1:1.01 SWR! i also get that with my MJF discone/50ft RG58/SO232>SMA
I have about 25' of rg8 coiled up for my cb and have great swr
Good vid👍
I appreciate this..
Since I coil my extra CB antenna coax under the seat, I will sleep better knowing the radio doesn't give a F!
OTOH... there are a few (ham radio) antenna experts on here on YT that could give you a one-word answer...
with a 20-minute explanation! 😁😆
i read the title and i thought NO. isn't the wire inside a shield, hence the name COAXial?... you could have imperfect shielding and stuff like that, but not thaaat bad...
Thank you for these videos. Some practical tests teaches us a lot, if not more than theoreticals.
i have the same flag .just saying . love the show and info you provide. got my gmrs call sign about 6 months ago and a couple radios . keep up the good work
Ha Ha! You were so wrong! I don't even own a couch! I was laying in bed eating bon-bons as I watched this. Keep up the good work defrocking experts :-)
I'm new to all of this. When you speak of fars, is this a metric far or an imperial far?
Will tying excess cable into a Hangman's Noose increase SWR? What about a standard Bowline Knot or the mighty Sheepshank? I smell a playlist!
Awesome video debunking the straight coax purists out there. You are doing the Lord's work, even if it's Lord Xenu.
🤣Your videos are awesome.
Have you done a test of different cables? Also which meter did you use?
I recently put my radio in my UTV and went to a lot of trouble not to coil my cable.🙃 But it does work just fine.
I like your T-Shirt ... 😂😂😂👍 73 de Your Friend Uncle Guenter 🍻🙋♂️
Hmmm🤔I'm quite surprised...somehow, someway, just not really sure why, but this video was somewhat interesting😲
Confucklement....I am dying here.... too funny! Hope you don't mind...I am using that one. Loved your shirt by the way!
I’ve heard this debate for 25 years
I don’t see and difference . I’ve never did a test but I personally operate mostly on 10/11 meter SSB . I’d be interested to look at the differences between straight and coiled excess coax on a Bird setup for a reflect comparison just out of curiosity
Anyway ,, good video man 👍
Before doing these tests could you state your null hypothesis? Some people need to know. My null hypothesis is that more fars is better especially when transmitting without an antenna.
Great video. thank you sir... Riff Raff Radio 231 from Fort Lauderdale Fl Waven.... 73ssss
Cool video. I wonder how HF equipment would respond. From the little I understand, it seems to be more finicky.
it would be funny if Randy's myth busting ended up changing the ham test that one has to take to become a ham enthusiast. :-D
Right!🤣🤣🤣🤣
Back in the day (probably 25 years ago...) I coiled up coax a LOT for my CB rig. Not going to cut a perfectly fine cable, just because it would mean I wouldn't have to coil it up when using that antenna in that specific car. And I never had any difference in SWR. Never even had to re-tune the antenna is I switched cars, and just had an SWR of 1,05.
Hi very kool video
same thing here on cb, tried it both ways and no difference with swr, i still got 1.01 on channel 1 and 40. have you checked out the GT-5R radio
Best radio video ever
gonna get my cable balled
You always have the best T-shirts. Oh yeah, and great info kinda randomly sprinkled in there between the hilarious sarcastic comments. I already see mucho butthurt in the comments, meaning you have done your job well as always. Hope to catch up on the trails someday, lets see more offroading sometime! :)
Great content, man! The SWR dropped because the coil made a load, a small load but a load non the less. I would be curious if it affected the forward power, and if so, by how much?
The FWD power is visible on the meter. (lwr left of the screen)
How about you do a test where you shorten the cable. I would be interested as to what the results would be. It would be nice to cleanup a Jeep install. Thanks for all you information!
it used as a choke or lightning chock also
Whew! Well I guess I dodged the bullet on that one, I've coiled hundreds of cables over several decades, I'm so glad to know that the rampant confuckelment all around us was not caused by me,... well maybe part of it
huh.. sometimes they tell us to coil it on purpose to make an rf choke to keep rf off the sheid.
True, but that only affects RF electricities on the OUTSIDE of the shield where none is supposed to be. RF signals on the inside of the coax shield is mostly uneffected. Coiling coax does help a little but you are hiding a problem with either the cable or the antenna because there is not supposed to be any electric currents traveling down the outside of the shield in the first place. The more 'non resonant' your antenna is - the higher swr will be on the inside of the coax and that means the energy tries to travel down the outside of the shield instead.
Many radio books do suggest doing that because a balanced aerial such as a dipole when fed with unbalanced coax can induce r.f. on the outer of coax.
G4GHB
Very informative little tests wow suprised it went down after the lmr400 was coiled Randy @NotaRubicon Productions
It’s fairly common practice to deliberately coil coax to form a choke whenever connecting to a balanced antenna, or to create a drip loop to stop water coming indoors.