[Elecraft] Buryflex all the way to K3?

[Tom W8JI]

> I'm doing some rewiring of my shack and the antenna runs. 
> I'm going to order
> some BuryFlex which will be used as the main runs to both 
> of my antennas.
> I'm trying to minimize the number and type of connections 
> while doing all
> this. I don't yet have any BuryFlex as my previous runs 
> were RG213 (Wireman
> CQ110) so I don't have a feel for its flexibility. RG213 
> is pretty stiff.
>
> I'm wondering if I can bring two BF lines up to the back 
> of the K3/10 or
> will that be like connecting two anacondas to a church 
> mouse?

Jim,

two points:

1.) We should always have an entrance bulkhead ground at the 
building cable entrance that is bonded to the mains ground. 
This is where 99% of the lightning protection will occur. 
Why not run a small cable from there to the K3??

2.) The loss at HF and even lower VHF in barrel connectors 
or connectors in general is immeasurable without very 
special methods. There is some bad information on Internet 
about it and some real wild myths, but the loss in a typical 
moderate to good PL259-barrel-PL259 is about .05 dB or so at 
30 MHz, and less on lower frequencies.

When I test connectors here at HF, I actually have to do it 
thermally with a few kilowatts of power!!! The loss is 
almost always too low to measure accurately on a $35k 
network analyzer at HF, even on a PL259/SO-239 combination. 
Unless you are on UHF or working EME on 144 MHz, there is 
very little reason to avoid changing cable sizes inside the 
dwelling.

73 Tom