For such a low load of 40W I would definitely go with Cat5E cable. Normal POE on 2 pair would work just fine. For higher loads dedicate all 8 conductors to power. Four 24 gauge wires in the standard Cat5E cable is electrically equivalent to one 18 gauge wire. Two groups of 4 (one dedicated Cat5E) wires gives you the same as one pair of 18 gauge wire. Use any of the on-line calculators with 18 gauge and DC selected and verify you have no more than 10% voltage drop at the top and 5% would be better. Remember, the higher the voltage the less drop on the way up the cable. Try running 48v (or even more!) and step it down at the top if you must.
Once your power load exceeds what you can do with Cat5E then go with SOOJ cable. We run 12ga 3 conductor with a ground-4 four wires-and run both 48v and 24v to the top so no voltage converter required for a mixed voltage array. If you want to get crazy run 60v up on two parallel pairs of 10ga. PC Blaze Broadband > -----Original Message----- > From: Af [mailto:af-bounces+pconlin=blazebroadband....@afmug.com] On Behalf > Of Bill Prince via Af > Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 3:30 PM > To: af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Power up the tower? > > Maybe just some LMR400? Would give you shielding, and probably handle up to 150- > 200 watts. > > bp > > On 9/27/2014 11:16 AM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote: > > Planning on hanging a DC box on the tower > > > > 30-40w total power > > > > Cat5 using multiple pairs or 2 conductor cable? > > > > We are inclined on cat 5 for standardization purposes... > > > > Sent from Marconi's and Graham Bell's fused thoughts!!! > > > >
