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Re: [TowerTalk] Losses in parallel coax

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Losses in parallel coax
From: "Joe Subich, W4TV" <lists@subich.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2016 14:35:31 -0400
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>

It has to do with the coupling between the center conductor and the
shield of coax -- when current flows in the center, an equal current
flows in the shield, and we're stuck with the loss of both of those
currents.

The loss in cables are primarily I^2 x R losses in the conductors (at
least at HF) where we tend to use them.

If one creates a 25 Ohm feedline by paralleling two 50 Ohm lines, the
current in *each* of the two parallel lines has to increase by SQRT(2)
in order to maintain the same *total power* (P = I^2 / Z).  That means
the current in each cable is now 1.4*I/2.

Now, (1.4*I/2)^2 is 2*I^2/4 or I^2/2.  The resistance of each cable is
the same as the single cable, so the LOSS in each cable is (I^2/2)*R.
Sum the loss of each cable and you're back to I^2*R just as it was with
the original single cable!

It's really simply arithmetic, Jim!

73,

   ... Joe, W4TV


On 8/4/2016 2:07 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
On Thu,8/4/2016 10:50 AM, Hans Hammarquist via TowerTalk wrote:
That's something I don't really understand. Why do you get the same
loss in coax if you run them parallel?

That's something I also had trouble getting my head around too. EMC
expert Henry Ott, who retired many years ago from AT&T Bell Labs, was
they guy who explained it to me. It has to do with the coupling between
the center conductor and the shield of coax -- when current flows in the
center, an equal current flows in the shield, and we're stuck with the
loss of both of those currents.

73, Jim K9YC

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