Mixing wires in a narrow chase.

[work2much]

Hi Guys. Looking for help concerning proximity of wires and possible degradation of signal.

I am installing 1080 watts of solar. The panels will be wired to a combiner box and sent to the solar charge controller using #2 welding cable. Voltage should be around 19V dc and less than 60 Amps at peak. I would also like to have a coax cable in same run for a weboost cell booster antenna.


Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Tango__AE7UI]

I know that LMR 250 and 400 are 50 ohm coax.
Just stating the the LMR SERIES is a better coax, regardless of impedance.
But I agree that in the same chase as wiring will have no effect on signals.

[GordonThree]

CaFordGuy wrote:
RG-6 is a 75 ohm coax, typically used in cackle and sat tv applications. Times Microwave LMR coax, LMR 400 for example, is a 50 ohm coax. Typically used in radio applications. They are not interchangeable.

Doubt if you will have any noise issues running these in the same cable run. If you do use a few small ferite beads on the solar leads.

What's odd is Wilson (now Weboost) sells both 50 and 75 ohm cable for use with their amplifiers. I wonder if they just don't care, or if there's active impedance matching going on somewhere?

[CaFordGuy]

RG-6 is a 75 ohm coax, typically used in cackle and sat tv applications. Times Microwave LMR coax, LMR 400 for example, is a 50 ohm coax. Typically used in radio applications. They are not interchangeable.

Doubt if you will have any noise issues running these in the same cable run. If you do use a few small ferite beads on the solar leads.

[Tango__AE7UI]

LMR series coax has a much better shielding than RG6.
It is a closely woven continuous braid over a solid foil material.
We use the 240 and 400 for ham radio with great results.

[work2much]

Thanks!

[DrewE]

I would not expect much if any interference. The solar charge controller operates at a much lower switching frequency than cell phone signaling, by at least a few orders of magnitude. Putting a capacitor (a type with low impedance, preferably) across the solar panel inputs to the solar controller would help control any high frequency noise, as likely would putting a ferrite core over each of the wires near the controller. But I rather doubt either of those is necessary; if it were, you'd have poor cell phone reception in the vicinity of the RV already.

[work2much]

GordonThree wrote:
Are you using LMR400 or LMR600 for the cellular antenna? The thin coax usually supplied will eat most of your signal, leaving the booster mostly noise to amplify. Unless we're only talking a foot or two jumper. That would be my only concern about degradation.

Thank you for the response. I was going to use the supplied cable only marked as "RG6 cable wilson electronics" It looks like Wilson Electronics have this cable made for them.

[GordonThree]

Are you using LMR400 or LMR600 for the cellular antenna? The thin coax usually supplied will eat most of your signal, leaving the booster mostly noise to amplify. Unless we're only talking a foot or two jumper. That would be my only concern about degradation.