Whats the best cable to use outdoor?

RF240

Whats the best cable to use outdoor?

Radiolab 8D or better LMR-400.

Don't let people jerk you around, it's not as simple of an answer as that. The question is how far are you going and how much signal do you have to play with. Anybody who gives a big broad answer of XYZ cable is ALWAYS the best. Picking cable is like picking any other part of your wireless network, it should be considered in context with the entire installation.

If you are going with long runs and low signal levels, LMR 600 or better and LDF5-50A are good choices. In some cases we have used even larger cable for super long runs. In one case, we have a broadcast tower that is 450 ft, too long for POE, we used HJ7-50A for our 2.4 GHz broadcasts. Luckly, we are also in the tower slavage business and come by all kinds of great cable for free. With outdoor radios though, it's not really an issue and most of your runs are 20ft or less. In those cases, if you have strong signal, it is sometimes beneficial to attenuate your signal by choosing a good cable combination for the distance/signal levels. I.E. If you have a RX level of -50, you can run LMR 195 for 20 ft instead of LMR 400 or 600 and not hurt your situation, actually you would be doing yourself a favor by saving some cash and cutting your RX level. Visa versa in if you have a 20 ft run and a RX level of -70, you might want to consider LMR 600 or better.

True that! I have many locations where my board is mounted 6 inches from the antenna so I use a 2ft piece of LMR195. If a very short distance were a big issue, pigtails wouldn't work.

As expunge says, the longer the runs, the more important it is to have larger cable. Also, the higher the frequency, the more important too. The signal loss at 900mhz isn't nearly as much as 5ghz.

If you are going with long runs and low signal levels, LMR 600 or better and LDF5-50A are good choices.

LDF5-50A is TOO near the cut off frequency @ 5GHz!

JR,

Good catch, I was thinking LDF4-50A actually, 5-50 works well for 2.4 though. It's fairly easy to find good used LDF which can save a bundle as compared to trying to buy LMR cable.