Help! How would I connect two stripped antenna coaxial cables?

[Techie333]

While installing a new cd player in my car, I managed to break off one of the connectors. I thought I could just strip both the coaxial wires and solder and reconnect them together but this doesn't work like it does with speaker wires! Only when I touch the tip of each, does it work properly. I did some research and looks like I have to get coax connectors and crimp them on? Can anyone provide me with more info, I.E. names of connectors I would need (I assume one female and one male to plug into each other) and procedure and the crimping tool? Thanks!

update: The CC guy twisted the two wires together, see 6th post down. I'm pretty sure this is the WRONG way to do it.

 

[Pepsi90919]

you don't, that's the beauty of it

 

[spidey07]

Go to home depot. They have coax stripping and crimping tools. They aren't good quality, but they'll do. get a female/femal connector to join the two ends.

Just put ends on each end and use a "barrel" connector to reconnect.

 

[Techie333]

Does it matter if the wire is much smaller and fragile than your standard cable coaxial wire? And I just connect the connectors on each end, crimp, and the plug in?

 

[IronWing]

You need to make sure the impedance of the connectors matchs the impedance of the cable. Look on the cable for any marking indicating impedance. Should be in ohms or appear with an ohm symbol ==> O.

 

[Techie333]

Ok, can anyone provide me more info about connecting coaxial cables? I just took my car to CC to ask if they could do something about it, the guy there looked at it and said that because I stripped both ends, all he could do was twist them together and put electrical tape around the center coaxial and then twist and put tape around the surrounding braid. He did it and then taped the wire itself up and now I get it works alright, except that the strongest and closest station has static and the ones further away are clear!!

 

[IronWing]

Okay, go to Radio Shack, tell them what you want to do. Tell them some dork at CC taped your coax together. Listen to the geek at Radio Shack discuss the dork at CC. Then let them sell you the correct parts to connect your coax. Your coax has to carry a radio frequency signal. Therefore the impedance has to match or you get a lose of signal and static just like you report. The electrical tape the dork from CC put on your coax doesn't match the cable in impedance and is corrupting the radio signal.

<---- Built time domain reflectometry probes in a past life, knows a bit about coax impedance.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: ironwing
Okay, go to Radio Shack, tell them what you want to do. Tell them some dork at CC taped your coax together. Listen to the geek at Radio Shack discuss the dork at CC. Then let them sell you the correct parts to connect your coax. Your coax has to carry a radio frequency signal. Therefore the impedance has to match or you get a lose of signal and static just like you report. The electrical tape the dork from CC put on your coax doesn't match the cable in impedance and is corrupting the radio signal.

<---- Built time domain reflectometry probes in a past life, knows a bit about coax impedance.

LOL! Nice.

Yeah - impedance mismaches/relfections are bad. m'kay?

Coax is a perfect cable for high frequency transmission. Just get the impedance/bandwidth correct.

 

[Techie333]

okay, got it, impedance mismatching is bad and CC guys is a jacka**. Now both the wires on both ends are stripped, so I just goto ratshack and ask they guy and he point me to a female to female barrell. Then I just put the connectors on and crimp or something?

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: Techie333
okay, got it, impedance mismatching is bad and CC guys is a jacka**. Now both the wires on both ends are stripped, so I just goto ratshack and ask they guy and he point me to a female to female barrell. Then I just put the connectors on and crimp or something?

Pretty much. Do you have enough unstripped wire to work with? You will have to cut off the stripped portion. You need to make a proper termination for each exposed end. If you don't have enough unstripped cable to make the link you may need to add a length of cable between the ends, then you would need two connections.

These websites show what the cable end should look like before adding the connectors:

http://www.delmar.edu/Courses/ITNW2313/icoax.htm
http://www.hometech.com/learn/coaxterm.html

You don't absolutely need to use a specialized stripper but it helps.

Again, make sure the connectors you buy are designed for your cable.

 

[Techie333]

Thanks, ironwing. I got enough cable and stripped the wire correctly. The only thing I can't figure out is the impedance of the coax cables, but now I'm pretty sure they are 50 ohms. I believe I need to buy a standard motorola connector to just crimp it onto the stock antenna wire and then plug into my aftermarket cd receiver. This is the converter for my stock antenna to aftermarket antenna and it has a standard motorola connector:

Antenna Adapter

Therefore, I'm guessing I can just get a solderless Motorola connector from ratshack such as this one:

Motorola connector

 

[Techie333]

anyone?

 

[Techie333]

one more time? last attempt. lol