Acquiring RF signals in poor reception areas, short range wireless communications or WiFi connections in large buildings will require high gain antennas placed as high as possible to get the best reception. The problem is that the longer the cable length is from the RF equipment to the antenna, the higher the signal loss and consequently poorer reception.
RG174 and RG58 are standard cables that everyone use for RF work, however the losses per metre escalate rapidly the higher the frequency goes. Antennas with cable lengths of 10M, 15M or 20M will suffer considerable loss over the length. It means that a more powerful transmitter and/or a more sensitive receiver is required. This all comes at a price in one way or another.
Standard RG58 cable has an approximate loss per metre of 1dB at 2.5GHz – WiFi and Euro 4G frequencies. Bear in mind that a loss of 3dB of signal is halving the signal strength… it is easy to see why systems are not very sensitive if they have long and standard cables to the antenna.
Now take the LLC200 low loss RG58 equivalent. It has a solid copper core and 2 levels of shielding and special connectors to accommodate the cable. It has a 0.55dB loss per metre at the same 2.5GHz frequency.
Bearing in mind the logarithmic nature of measuring in decibels, the signal arriving at the end of 20M of RG58 cable at 2.5GHz is about 0.07% of what went into the cable. Alternatively, using the LLC200 cable the signal arriving at the end of the cable is around 12% of what went in. 0.07% versus 12% is a massive difference in signal strength.
This is the case for Siretta’s low loss cable range!
