# Antenna cable lengths



## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Couldn't find the answers on the NCE site, so...

I read that the NCE base station comes with a 7 ft cable. Can you extend that, maybe with a home grown cable?
Also, I read that the repeaters come with 40' cables. Is that the "frequency" with which one is forced to plant them, or can you extend these cables yourself?

As always, thanks guys for all your help.

Cliff


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I've run my cable from the command station to the RB02 of over 40 feet. I used cat5 cable rather than flat cable. Be sure to check the wiring of the cables, or just read the NCE section on my site. 

Regards, Greg


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Thanks Greg!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I don't remember which wires to use as pairs, but if you look at the documentation, 1 pair is signal, the other pair is power, keep them together and you should be able to run hundreds of feet, it's basically RS422. 

Regards, Greg


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Thanks as always Greg! That's great news.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Looked up the wiring... in the 6 pin connector, pins 1 & 6 are not connected for the cab bus. 

Pins 2 and 5 should be a pair (12v dc) 

Pins 3 and 4 should be a pair (the RD-485) (I wrote the wrong standard above)... RS-485 is sort of long distance RS-232... old style serial port. 

So you use a cable with 2 twisted pairs and that would be fine... but you can probably find computer cat5 or above cable easier. Also, some phone wire is twisted pairs also. 

There's a nice document on the NCE site called the "system technical manual" that gives the wiring, and limitations of length, power, etc... worth downloading. 

Greg


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