so i finally got around to putting up a proper 2m yagi on the roof, its a 5 element M2 and i ran about 35 feet of LMR-400 from the shack up through the attic and out a weatherproof fitting. got it pointed roughly northeast toward the repeater cluster about 40 miles out and its working but im second guessing myself on the feedline choice.

my buddy keeps telling me i shouldve used hardline but honestly the run isnt that long and LMR-400 at 144mhz should be fine right? i measured like 0.8db loss over the run which seems acceptable. the antenna itself is doing great, im hitting that repeater full quieting which i never could with the old 5/8 wave whip on the car. just curious what others are running for longer rooftop runs and whether i should be losing sleep over half a db or whatever.

35 feet of LMR-400 at 2m is totally fine, you're not losing sleep over anything real there. the whole hardline argument makes sense when you're talking 50+ foot runs or running 70cm and up where the loss per foot actually starts to add up. at 144 your numbers sound right, maybe a touch better even depending on connector quality. did you use PL-259 or N connectors on that run? because honestly a bad PL-259 crimp can eat more than the whole feedline run anyway. i switched to N-type on everything above 2m a couple years back and never looked back.

yeah dont worry about it. ive got a 7el up here on a pushup mast, probably 60 feet of lmr-400 and its doing fine for 2m ssb work. only time i started caring more about line loss was when i got into 70cm EME stuff and even then its the connectors that'll kill you way before the cable does. your setup sounds solid honestly, hitting a 40 mile repeater full quieting from a 5 element is about what you'd expect if everyting is working right.