I don't have an outdoor antenna installed at my house, but would like to
connect one to my basement lair. The question is what's the best way to
connect to the outside without causing permanent damage to the house, or
leaving a window open.

One former basement window has been replaced by an aluminum sheet, from
which have been cut openings for at least two gas chimneys (boiler & hot
water). This is the obvious way to route some cable out. But I don't
think putting coax through a hole in metal (insulation against the metal
edges of the hole) is a great idea. I'd rather have some kind of
feed-through connector that has back to back coax jacks on either side,
so I can plug in a jumper to the radios on the inside and simply plug in
an antenna on the outside. BNC would probably be the ideal connector
type for this but crufty old UHF (SO-239s) could work too.

Anyone have any suggestions or pointers? Thanks.
fred k1io

Fred Goldstein wrote:
I don't have an outdoor antenna installed at my house, but would like to
connect one to my basement lair. The question is what's the best way to
connect to the outside without causing permanent damage to the house, or
leaving a window open.

One former basement window has been replaced by an aluminum sheet, from
which have been cut openings for at least two gas chimneys (boiler & hot
water). This is the obvious way to route some cable out. But I don't
think putting coax through a hole in metal (insulation against the metal
edges of the hole) is a great idea. I'd rather have some kind of
feed-through connector that has back to back coax jacks on either side,
so I can plug in a jumper to the radios on the inside and simply plug in
an antenna on the outside. BNC would probably be the ideal connector
type for this but crufty old UHF (SO-239s) could work too.

Anyone have any suggestions or pointers? Thanks.
fred k1io

Full length threaded barrel connectors are available for for just about
all types of connectors.

Take your pick, drill a hole, and tighten the nuts.

Here is a place that sells UHF barrels up to 12 inches long if you want
to go through a wall instead.

http://www.connectorzone.com/category-s/1954.htm

--
Jim Pennino

On 12/31/2014 2:41 PM, wrote:
Fred Goldstein wrote:
I don't have an outdoor antenna installed at my house, but would like to
connect one to my basement lair. The question is what's the best way to
connect to the outside without causing permanent damage to the house, or
leaving a window open.

One former basement window has been replaced by an aluminum sheet, from
which have been cut openings for at least two gas chimneys (boiler & hot
water). This is the obvious way to route some cable out. But I don't
think putting coax through a hole in metal (insulation against the metal
edges of the hole) is a great idea. I'd rather have some kind of
feed-through connector that has back to back coax jacks on either side,
so I can plug in a jumper to the radios on the inside and simply plug in
an antenna on the outside. BNC would probably be the ideal connector
type for this but crufty old UHF (SO-239s) could work too.

Anyone have any suggestions or pointers? Thanks.
fred k1io

Full length threaded barrel connectors are available for for just about
all types of connectors.

Take your pick, drill a hole, and tighten the nuts.

Here is a place that sells UHF barrels up to 12 inches long if you want
to go through a wall instead.

http://www.connectorzone.com/category-s/1954.htm


Thanks! That's a great site to know about.

Lots of UHF bulkhead adapters there, to be sure. Not for BNC, but there
is one for SMA.

I got a new Funcube Dongle Pro+, and it uses an SMA connector; I got an
adapter from a site on eBay. Connectorzone would have had a lot of
choices too. Now I just need an antenna or two (or more) that can bring
it signals. It does SDR from around AM broadcast up to around 1700 MHz.
Unlike the cheaper SDR dongles, this one has a 16-bit DAC and a
switched set of 10 bandpass filters, all in a USB stick. But a rubber
ducky or TV rabbit ears in the basement don't do it much good. Of course
a little SDR transmitter would be fun too, but those are not as common
or (especially) cheap yet.

Fred Goldstein wrote:
On 12/31/2014 2:41 PM, wrote:
Fred Goldstein wrote:
I don't have an outdoor antenna installed at my house, but would like to
connect one to my basement lair. The question is what's the best way to
connect to the outside without causing permanent damage to the house, or
leaving a window open.

One former basement window has been replaced by an aluminum sheet, from
which have been cut openings for at least two gas chimneys (boiler & hot
water). This is the obvious way to route some cable out. But I don't
think putting coax through a hole in metal (insulation against the metal
edges of the hole) is a great idea. I'd rather have some kind of
feed-through connector that has back to back coax jacks on either side,
so I can plug in a jumper to the radios on the inside and simply plug in
an antenna on the outside. BNC would probably be the ideal connector
type for this but crufty old UHF (SO-239s) could work too.

Anyone have any suggestions or pointers? Thanks.
fred k1io

Full length threaded barrel connectors are available for for just about
all types of connectors.

Take your pick, drill a hole, and tighten the nuts.

Here is a place that sells UHF barrels up to 12 inches long if you want
to go through a wall instead.

http://www.connectorzone.com/category-s/1954.htm


Thanks! That's a great site to know about.

Lots of UHF bulkhead adapters there, to be sure. Not for BNC, but there
is one for SMA.

Here is one place you can get BNC through panel connectors:

http://www.jameco.com/1/1/29459-2282...c-adapter.html

I got a new Funcube Dongle Pro+, and it uses an SMA connector; I got an
adapter from a site on eBay. Connectorzone would have had a lot of
choices too. Now I just need an antenna or two (or more) that can bring
it signals. It does SDR from around AM broadcast up to around 1700 MHz.
Unlike the cheaper SDR dongles, this one has a 16-bit DAC and a
switched set of 10 bandpass filters, all in a USB stick. But a rubber
ducky or TV rabbit ears in the basement don't do it much good. Of course
a little SDR transmitter would be fun too, but those are not as common
or (especially) cheap yet.

If it were me, I would go for BNC just because of cost and ease of
assembly.

TNC would also be OK but pricy unless you have a source.


--
Jim Pennino