Since you have the foam filled stuff it's a little more difficult to
trim away the center so I'd use a utility knife to make a slit along
each side and pull the wires out. Then just cut away the remaining
center carcass. Finally, attach the leads to the wire leads or screw
terminals of the matching transformer.




Thanks everyone for the info. One piece is still missing (at least
for me) - how do you actually strip a clean cut twin-lead wire?
Beachcomber's retelling of his father's method - burn everything
around the wires - sounds good, except that if I do that in the
basement (where the wire terminates and air circulation is minimal) -
the resulting smell will probably be grounds for divorce and a major
violation of zoning regulations

Nevertheless, I'm willing to use that method as a last resort.
Question - is it actually the last resort?

I'm certain everyone is breathlessly awaiting a status report on this
project, so here goes: As suggested, I bought an Xacto knife from the
nearest Radio Shack; I rummaged and found somewhere a balun
transformer. [As an aside, on the balun are inscribed the magic words
"Sega Genesis"! If memory serves, that video game system was
prevalent at the time dinosaurs still roamed the earth, although
dinosaur and video game historians may quibble with the dating.]

I used the knife to strip about ½ inch of the twin lead wire and
embarked on the mother of all kludges: I sort of connected the exposed
twin lead wires to the input of the balun; connected an RG6 coax male-F
to the female-F on the balun; connected the other male-F end of the
cable to the coax input on a Radio Shack Accurian Over-the-Air HDTV
ATSC tuner (now discontinued, but the best $90 I've ever spent);
connected an S-video cable to the S-video out on the tuner and
connected the other end to the S-video in on a Philips RF modulator
(best $8 ever spent); connected yet another RG6 to the coax out on the
RF modulator and the other end to the coax input on an old (about 15-20
year) RCA TV in the basement.

THEN! I turned on the ATSC tuner and the RF modulator and the TV, and
set the TV on channel 3 - and every OTA HDTV station known to man (at
least in my area - western Nassau County, Long Island), was there -
loud and clear! (Well, not so loud - sharp-eyed readers may have
noticed I didn't bother with the audio settings; this was just a test
of the antenna and wire).

So thanks be given to the gods of unknown antenna manufacturers and to
Belden - a 15-20 year old system is still working, with the flimsiest
of setup and no amplifiers! The wonders of technology.