BNC connectors

[Dockhead]

Weird that Shakespear supply 20m of RG58/u with their antennas and don’t mention this.

RG8X is twice as thick and feeding connectors down a mast rarely works.

20 metres of RG58/u will give you about 4dB of attenuation at marine VHF frequencies, reducing your power from 25 watts to 10 watts, not counting the connectors. That may be usable if the rest of the installation is very good and the antenna is very good, but certainly not optimal.

RG-214/u is only about 1.5dB over 20m, leaving you with 17.25 watts of power at the antenna. RG-8X is about 3dB so not dramatically better than RG58/u. And it's not twice as thick -- about 6mm vs 5mm. RG-214 is about 11mm -- yeah, it was no fun pulling it through my 23m mast.

You don't want to feed connectors down the mast, whatever kind of cable you use. Install the connectors after the cable is already pulled.

 

[Dockhead]

This is their 5mm cable. As a radio ham, I know the guys at ML&S very well and they recommend Extraflex Bury 7mm for boat use due to it's better durability, UV protection etc.

EXTRAFLEX BURY 7 /.300

The EF Bury 7 @ 144MHz (closest to marine freq) spec shows a cable loss of 6.9db/100m vs 9.6db/100m for the Hyperflex 5.

I've previously recommended this cable in these similar threads ..

Post in thread 'Replacement antenna'

30 Jun 2025

This coax was recommended to me for marine use by a friend who works at the establishment - EXTRAFLEX BURY 7 - Messi & Paoloni Coax Cable

• wonkywinch

Post in thread 'VHF antenna types'

28 Oct 2025

Different antenna designs have different gains. Sailing yachts need low gain, wide lobes for when they heel over. Motor boats can have higher gain narrow lobes as they don't lean as much.

You can get much better performance cable at proper radio shops than at chandlers. On a 20m mast, you can easily be radiating 10w when your radio is outputting 25w with poor cable and connectors.

Agreed (as an ex radio engineer/licensed amateur). I like this stuff - EXTRAFLEX BURY 7 /.300

• wonkywinch

• 

At £2.60/m the average yottie would need say 25m so £65 worth vs £1.50/m (£37.50) for the single core crap sold by the chandlers. That extra £27 spend would be well worth considering on a "mission critical" item such as this. (I hate that phrase as much as you do).

I had never heard of this cable; must not have existed when I did my installation.

Very impressive performance for a quite thin cable. It apparently gets that due to foam insulation (like LMR-400). But then extra toughened and waterproofed to overcome the vulnerabilities of foam insulation (I wouldn't use LMR-400 inside a mast).

Thanks!

 

[Roberto]

You want the best reasonably feasible antenna (e.g. an internal dipole like the lovely silver-plated Shakespeare Galaxy), with the best reasonably feasible feedline (RG-214 in my case, with silver plated conductor), and as few and as good connectors (Type N when you can) as possible.

I want?
I want an efficient fixed vhf station which I have/it has proved to be, I don't want anything else

 

[Dockhead]

I want?
I want an efficient fixed vhf station which I have/it has proved to be, I don't want anything else

If you want an efficient fixed vhf station, then you want a good antenna, and a good installation (the basic elements of which I described). What is "efficient enough" or "good enough" is for you to decide. I don't understand what problem you had with my post. Efficiency of the station is a function of the elements I mentioned. If you're happy with what you've got, then great!