RG-213/U is Overkill for HF

Once again, a new hame asked about HF antennas and coax on Facebook.  And once again, someone said “Get RG-213 because it is lower loss.” Let’s Look at the specs (These specs come from the DX Engineering catalog):

As you can see:

• RG-213’s loss per hundred feet is only .4 dB less than RG8X.
• RG213 is considerably more expensive than RG8X
• RG213 is twice the diameter with a solid polyethylene dielectric, making it heavier and much less flexible.
• Both are Direct-Bury

I run 100ft of RG8X from my Drake TR-4C to my Hy-Gain AV-640 vertical.  The difference in loss is unnoticeable.

There ARE circumstances where RG8X is not the best choice:

• Your coax run is several hundred feet
• You are running high power
• You are operating an higher frequencies

In both these cases however, I would probably choose LMR-400 instead.