Routing cable from aerial

Just had my XG10EW Antiference aerial delivered - looking nice anyway!

Reading through the installation instructions, there were two mounting
options - 1 to fix the aerial at the back (which looked to me like a
recipe for adding additional stress into the mast) and 1 to fix the
aerial via the underside u-bar (which looks far more balanced to me).

The instructions for the rear mounting said to make sure that the cable
passed as near to half way between the reflectors (I presume for some
interefence reason). Is there a "best practice" routing to get the
cable from the balun to the mast? Should I route straight along the
aerial's main boom, then straight down at 90 degrees, or should I take
the cable away from the balun downwards as quickly as possible, route
along the u-bar and then down the mast?

Cheers!

Matt

"larkim" wrote in message
oups.com...
Just had my XG10EW Antiference aerial delivered - looking nice anyway!

Reading through the installation instructions, there were two mounting
options - 1 to fix the aerial at the back (which looked to me like a
recipe for adding additional stress into the mast) and 1 to fix the
aerial via the underside u-bar (which looks far more balanced to me).

The instructions for the rear mounting said to make sure that the cable
passed as near to half way between the reflectors (I presume for some
interefence reason). Is there a "best practice" routing to get the
cable from the balun to the mast? Should I route straight along the
aerial's main boom, then straight down at 90 degrees, or should I take
the cable away from the balun downwards as quickly as possible, route
along the u-bar and then down the mast?

Cheers!

Matt
#

The best thing would be to follow the instructions, or contact the maker if
you have more technical knowledge than them and doubt what they say.
It will not make any difference how you run the coax on many aerials used
for receive only.
Do you understand what a balun is?

My point was that the instructions gave no guidance. No, I don't
properly understand what a balun is as I only did GCSE physics 17 years
ago, but to be perfectly honest it doesn't matter whether I understand
it or not for the purposes of the question I have asked.

I don't doubt what the manufacturers say; they give two options for
mounting the mast (central and rear mounted), but only give detailed
instructions for cable routing on the rear-mounting set of
instructions.

I will be doing central mounting as it appears inherently more stable
(and that's the way most aerials are mounted), so I am asking just for
some advice on how to route the cable *in the absence of any guidance
from the manufacturers*.

TIA

Matt

On 2005-07-25, larkim wrote:
Just had my XG10EW Antiference aerial delivered - looking nice anyway!

Reading through the installation instructions, there were two mounting
options - 1 to fix the aerial at the back (which looked to me like a
recipe for adding additional stress into the mast) and 1 to fix the
aerial via the underside u-bar (which looks far more balanced to me).

The instructions for the rear mounting said to make sure that the cable
passed as near to half way between the reflectors (I presume for some
interefence reason). Is there a "best practice" routing to get the
cable from the balun to the mast? Should I route straight along the
aerial's main boom, then straight down at 90 degrees, or should I take
the cable away from the balun downwards as quickly as possible, route
along the u-bar and then down the mast?

The instructions from my Blake DMX10A show that in both mounting options
the cable should be routed from the balun to the rear, along the boom but
not touching it (emphasised), and then centrally through the reflector.

In the case of mointing via the underside u-bar the lead then comes down
along the rear side of the reflector, across from the underside edge of
the reflector to the mast (not horizontally, but sloping down at maybe
20 degrees), and then down along the mast.

I suspect that route would also be good for the XG10EW.

--
John Phillips

"John Phillips" wrote in message
...
On 2005-07-25, larkim wrote:
Just had my XG10EW Antiference aerial delivered - looking nice anyway!

Reading through the installation instructions, there were two mounting
options - 1 to fix the aerial at the back (which looked to me like a
recipe for adding additional stress into the mast) and 1 to fix the
aerial via the underside u-bar (which looks far more balanced to me).

The instructions for the rear mounting said to make sure that the cable
passed as near to half way between the reflectors (I presume for some
interefence reason). Is there a "best practice" routing to get the
cable from the balun to the mast? Should I route straight along the
aerial's main boom, then straight down at 90 degrees, or should I take
the cable away from the balun downwards as quickly as possible, route
along the u-bar and then down the mast?

The instructions from my Blake DMX10A show that in both mounting options
the cable should be routed from the balun to the rear, along the boom but
not touching it (emphasised), and then centrally through the reflector.

In the case of mointing via the underside u-bar the lead then comes down
along the rear side of the reflector, across from the underside edge of
the reflector to the mast (not horizontally, but sloping down at maybe
20 degrees), and then down along the mast.

I suspect that route would also be good for the XG10EW.


--
John Phillips

That's interesting what you say about the Blake aerials.
I've always run the lead out of the terminal box, under the boom, along the
underside of the boom, on to the "Ski runner" and on to the mast, when
centre mounting any aerial.

May be I've been doing it wrong for the past 16 years, but the man from CAI
didn't mention it was wrong when he inspected our work a few weeks ago.

Nigel.

I have to admit that I've seen a few centre cradle mounted jobs recently
where the co-ax exits back through the reflector, down the outside and
across air space back to the mast. I thought it looked hideous, and left
unsupported cable.

Like Nigel, I have always run the cable tight along the boom, down the
cradle and onto the mast, making sure that the curves are nice and smooth.

We've got a local rigger around here who wraps the co-ax around the mast and
tapes it. It looks like some king of giant electro magnet by the time he's
finished!

See http://www.antiference.co.uk/ANF0198...ly%20Instr.pdf
which is the leaflet that confused me.

The instruction for mounting the dipole suggest either forwards facing
or rearward facing depending on the mounting option chosen, so I guess
your 16 years aren't wrong Nigel!

Matt

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 09:30:10 +0100, Doctor D wrote:

We've got a local rigger around here who wraps the co-ax around the mast and
tapes it. It looks like some king of giant electro magnet by the time he's
finished!

Sounds like a bit of a **** to me. All that does is waste cable, increase
the losses and put the cost up. Yeah, great idea. He should be named and
shamed.

Ideally the cable outer sheath should not mess up received radio waves.
So, if the aerial elements (prongs) are horizontal, the cable should
approach aerial vertically (and vice versa!). It's also ok to run the
cable parallel to aerial "main support rod". or indeed along it, which
is probably the most convenient way.