[Antennas] What is Max Power

[Jim Reid]

> How do you determine the maximum power a coax cable 
> can handle?   For example RG-214 has a dielectric breakdown 
> voltage of 2500 volts what kind of power can it handle?  

The voltage on the line will increase dramatically as the
VSWR increases;  thus the power handling decreases
as  vswr goes higher.  If the load,  source,  and cable
are all 50 ohm,  the answer is 6.6 kW,  with about 
0.3 dB attenuation in a 100 foot run at 2.4 GHz.

See this site for answers:

http://www.timesmicrowave.com/cgi-bin/calculate

Select the cable type, input a frequency and run length.

However,  as the vswr goes up,  the voltage peaks also
rise,  and power handling drops quickly.  At amateur
power levels,  you should have no problems; unless
you are to have very poor Z matches,  hi.

73,  Jim  KH7M