so ive been planning a 2m yagi install on the roof for a while now and the run from the shack to where i want to mount it is going to be around 60 feet, maybe a bit more depending on how i route it through the attic. i was going to use LMR-400 because thats what i have a spool of sitting around but someone at the club meeting last week said i should just go ahead and use hardline for anything over 50 feet and honestly i dont know if thats overkill or not.

the antenna is a 7 element yagi im building from a design i found, should be around 10-11 dBd gain when its done. mostly using it for local weak signal work and maybe some tropo if conditions cooperate. not doing EME or anything serious like that. just wondering if the LMR-400 loss at 144 is going to be noticeable enough to actually matter or if the guy at the club was just being that guy, you know the type

LMR-400 at 60 feet on 2m is totally fine, dont let anyone convince you otherwise. youre looking at maybe 1.5 dB of loss at 144 MHz for that run, which yeah isnt zero but for local work and casual tropo its not going to make or break anything. hardline is great if you can get it cheap or free but the connectors are a pain and for what youre doing the 400 is completely reasonable. i ran a similar setup for years before i upgraded and never felt like i was leaving much on the table.

just make sure your connectors are done well, weatherproofed, and that you support the cable properly so it doesnt flex at the feedpoint. thats where most people lose more than they ever would to cable loss anyway.

the hardline guy probably runs hardline on everything including his HT lol. 60 feet of LMR-400 on 144 is not a problem. i think the actual number is somewhere around 1.3-1.5 dB per 100 feet so youre well under 1 dB for your run which is basically nothing. spend the effort you would have spent on sourcing hardline on getting your mast plumb and your coax entry properly sealed instead, that stuff actaully matters