Cable for paddles

Re: Cable for paddles

Rob Spence said:
I am buying some paddles for my wireless. I expect that 50' cables should do for any current needs.

What do you suggest? It should be pretty flexible so it can be coiled and stored easily and not overly bulky if possible.

Of course, I would like to pay as little as I can.


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What type of wireless? Do you really need 50'?
 
Re: Cable for paddles

Rob,

I didn't find it right off, but this was asked recently on PSW. As for length, I would recommend getting (2) 50' pieces and (1) 10' piece. Because the 10' piece is so short you don't need any crazy cable on it. I am a Rapco dealer and typically use their 50ohm bnc for that, but here are a lot of good options. With that cable you can use two 50' or what I typically do is run a near and far line where the near is only going through a little bit of cable. Also, that would let you do a really far 100' run and still have a little bit of flexibility near the rack. Last, definitely keep your whip antennas around. They hardly take up any space and they have better performance in tight spaces if the TX is right on top of the rack.

Hope that helps,
thomas d.
 
Re: Cable for paddles

If your paddles are active antennas (contain an inbuilt amplifier) then the coax doesn't need to be of great quality.
 
Re: Cable for paddles

Lyle Williams said:
If your paddles are active antennas (contain an inbuilt amplifier) then the coax doesn't need to be of great quality.
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Not true. The 3dB setting on a Shure paddle is really -5 - +3, and the +10 setting is really about +5 depending on frequency. Losses in cable are still an issue.

Mac
 
Re: Cable for paddles

LMR-400 (RG-8 equivalent) is a good option, with ~2dB of cable loss over 50' at the frequencies in question. The standard stuff is OK to coil, and they also make an "ultra flexible" version as well, which I haven't tried.

Not cheap, though. The cable itself goes for a bit over $1/ft, plus the connectors at ~10+ each and labor to assemble.
 
Re: Cable for paddles

mackerr said:
Not true. The 3dB setting on a Shure paddle is really -5 - +3, and the +10 setting is really about +5 depending on frequency. Losses in cable are still an issue.

Mac
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Receiver sensitivity is rarely the limiting factor in performance. Signal to noise ratio is king. Both signal and noise experience the same sort of losses in a cable. It also isn't the gain of a directional antenna that helps the most, it is the front-to-back ratio, or how much off-axis rf noise it rejects. Kind of like shotgun mics.
 
Re: Cable for paddles

I've used 100' lengths of RG6 with standard Kings and Neutrik 75 ohm connectors, with active and passive paddle antennas (mostly Shure), both transmitting and receiving, and never had an issue. I'm not in a heavy RF environment, but I always have solid signal. A couple 50' chunks of RG6 shouldn't set you back too much.

I can't think of a music event I've ever needed longer than 25' antenna cables for, and I usually use even shorter ones.
 
Re: Cable for paddles

Brian Adams said:
I've used 100' lengths of RG6 with standard Kings and Neutrik 75 ohm connectors, with active and passive paddle antennas (mostly Shure), both transmitting and receiving, and never had an issue. I'm not in a heavy RF environment, but I always have solid signal. A couple 50' chunks of RG6 shouldn't set you back too much.

I can't think of a music event I've ever needed longer than 25' antenna cables for, and I usually use even shorter ones.
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RG-6 is the wrong cable for the job, especially for more than just a few feet of length. It has the wrong impedance (75Ω) for mic and IEM systems (50Ω), and comparatively high loss. It is not designed for repeated deployment and recoiling, and is more susceptible to repeated-flex related failures due to its copper-clad steel center conductor.

Some people claim that an impedance mismatch of 25Ω has minimal effect. I partially disagree with that, and think it's unwise mess around with less than optimal setups when it's so easy to do it right.
 
Re: Cable for paddles

Rob Timmerman said:
Bennett - you should know better. That's triax, which is useful for video applications, but is overkill for antennas. For serious antenna work, something like this is common, but is a bit difficult to coil.
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Thanks Rob. I agree that since I only have 2 paddles I don't need triax (though we do keep talking about a spare in the cable run.


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Re: Cable for paddles

I had a slice of huge undersea coax on my desk but it went missing during one of many moves. Is that a slice of comms cable of a HV power feeder?
 
Re: Cable for paddles

Lyle Williams said:
I had a slice of huge undersea coax on my desk but it went missing during one of many moves. Is that a slice of comms cable of a HV power
feeder?
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Looks like HV 3 Phase. I doubt there is much of a market for undersea coax these days when fibre is so prevalent.
 
Re: Cable for paddles

Jason Glass said:
RG-6 is the wrong cable for the job, especially for more than just a few feet of length. It has the wrong impedance (75Ω) for mic and IEM systems (50Ω), and comparatively high loss. It is not designed for repeated deployment and recoiling, and is more susceptible to repeated-flex related failures due to its copper-clad steel center conductor.

Some people claim that an impedance mismatch of 25Ω has minimal effect. I partially disagree with that, and think it's unwise mess around with less than optimal setups when it's so easy to do it right.
Click to expand...

I know it's the "wrong" cable for the job, I was just relaying my experience with it, which has been 100% reliability for several years.
 
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