Antenna Wiring

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

I need two antenna wires going to one antenna. How can I do this? Can I splice the one thats already connected? Buy a really long one and connected it to the antenna? Is there a Y-adapter for antenna wires? Please help.

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[azbass 5,000+ posts]

maby radio shac has a splitter, idk.

 

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

They have this: http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=274-709

I guess I would have to do the wiring my self, no big deal. Are antenna wires special or anything? Can I just use reguler 10awg wire I have laying around?

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

yeah just use 18awg, not a whole lot of current going up to the antenna.

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

**** you, you edited. 10awg is a little big...

 

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

yeah i did edit, i thought 10 gauge would be better but i guess not.

 

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

Has anybody wired their own antenna wire before?

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Umm...you could say that //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

What do you mean, "two antenna wires going to one antenna"? What are you trying to wire up...two radios to work off of one antenna?

You can't simply wire an antenna with regular wire...you need a coaxial feedline. RF energy behaves differently than DC.

yeah just use 18awg, not a whole lot of current going up to the antenna.

Unless you want that 18awg to become part of the antenna, you can't simply use a wire feedline. RF feedlines have a certain impedance that must be used depending on the antenna being used (quarter-wave FM vertical antennas have an impedance of around 50-75 ohms, just like some kinds of TV antennas). Coax feedline has a conductor, a dielectric, and a shield, just like an RCA cable. You need to wire the center pin of the Motorola connector to the center conductor, and wire the shield to the ground of the connector.

It would help to know what you're trying to accomplish, so I can recommend a part to do the job.

 

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

Umm...you could say that //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif
What do you mean, "two antenna wires going to one antenna"? What are you trying to wire up...two radios to work off of one antenna?

Yes, I want my stock radio to still be able to play sense it's still in the dash and my HU which is in a center consol I made to play the radio too. And I have one antenna.

You can't simply wire an antenna with regular wire...you need a coaxial feedline. RF energy behaves differently than DC.

I knew there was a catch. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

Unless you want that 18awg to become part of the antenna, you can't simply use a wire feedline. RF feedlines have a certain impedance that must be used depending on the antenna being used (quarter-wave FM vertical antennas have an impedance of around 50-75 ohms, just like some kinds of TV antennas). Coax feedline has a conductor, a dielectric, and a shield, just like an RCA cable. You need to wire the center pin of the Motorola connector to the center conductor, and wire the shield to the ground of the connector.

It would help to know what you're trying to accomplish, so I can recommend a part to do the job.

I have no idea what to do. I guess I could buy this and splice it into the existing antenna wire, would you recoment that?

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

I've got just the part.

http://www.walcottcb.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=389

Or something similar. It's designed for splitting a signal into a car radio and a scanner, but you could easily put a BNC to Motorola adapter cable to run another car radio off of it.

 

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

Thanks very much.

Would this work for the BNC to motorola adapter?

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=278-160

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Would work fine.

 

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

Awsome. Thanks again.