I have a Yaesu FT7900 radio with remote control head. The cable that connects the control unit to the main body of the radio has RJ-11 jacks like a phone line. Is this a special cable or can I use phone line for my new installation?
While not a Yaesu my kenwood HF radio also takes a RJ-11/12 jack cable for the control head I believe (I have to run cables for both head and mic, one is an RJ-11 and the other is RJ-45).
I use a flat 6 wire telephone cable as an extension cable to operate while at camp as the radio is in the back of my Jeep. You might put a couple of ferrite beads on each end just to be safe but I think it should work fine.
I have a Yaesu FT7900 radio with remote control head. The cable that connects the control unit to the main body of the radio has RJ-11 jacks like a phone line. Is this a special cable or can I use phone line for my new installation?
You might want to confirm it is RJ-11. My FTM-400XDR has RJ-11 for the mic, but RJ-9 for the control unit.
Those curly phone handset extensions have RJ-9 ends on them and come in lots of lengths - but they cross over. It was ok for me as I cut it in the middle, put RJ-11s in a straight-thru configuration and then used a patch panel mounted to my console to pass from the inside to outside.
The FT-7800/7900/8800/8900 and FT-857 all use 6P6C/RJ12/RJ25 for the face connectors. Straight through cables, no cross-over. The MH-48 mics (like on your FT-7900) use 6P6C connectors, too. The MH-59 (like on a FT-857) uses 8P8C, so RJ45 jacks will work. Also straight through.