Antenna cable routing from the attic

[freema22]

Greetings. I have my first baby on the way, and my wife has made me move my home office down to the basement so that we can turn that room into the nursery. With that, my scanner goes with me. Before, I had a nice second story room with a window. Now I have a "bunker". The good news is, she gave me the "I don't care what you do in the basement" speech the other day, and she encouraged me to put an antenna somewhere else.

I don't really want to put something on the roof because of the trees and snow factor. However, I was thinking of getting a Radio Shack 20-176 and putting it in the attic. How do I run coax from the attic, to the basement of my house. There must be something simple, because everyone has TV and radio antennas up there. I must be over-thinking it. Can you guys help? Thanks.

Mike F

 

[N0GTG]

My house has a built-in problem routing coax, with a poured concrete floor between the main floor and the basement. I finally found the perfect route - the cold air return! This is a large duct that runs from the upstairs ceiling to the basement, to the furnace. It's easy to find - you'll probably see a grill on the wall which does not discharge warm or cool air. It's the path for air to get to your furnace/AC to be warmed/cooled and then discharged through the vents. Just go to the attic at the top of the duct, peel up a corner, run your coax into it, and drop it down to the basement. You can even take off the grill(s) and stick your arm in to help do that. And there's LOTS of room! Mine is about a foot or more wide. Hope this helps!

 

[jim202]

Part of your answer lies in the age of your house. If the house is old, you
probably don't have fire stops in the walls. If this is the case, you go up
to the attic and try to locate the walls below you.

Sometimes this is easy and then again you may have to rely on a tape
measure and some good Kentucky windage. I normally try to loacte
walls with electrical service so I know where they are. You may get
lucky and find the cables are able to be seen from up in the attic. Then
again if you have a basement, they may not show up at all in the attic.

Look for nails that tie in the wall partitions from the attic. Kind of depends
on who and how the walls were constructed. Sometimes they are done
from inside the room. If thats the case, no nails will show.

You can go to Home Depot or Lowes and get one of the wall drill bit
assemblies. These are long flexible shafts with a drill bit on the end.
They also have a funny looing movable handle that can control the location
of the drill bit itself. With a little practice, you can get the hole to go in
the middle of the wall sill timber. Just get a drill large enough to leave
plenty of room to run your cables through. If you get lucky, you might
even be able to get to the hole location from the basement cieling. That
way you can have the luxury of being able to drill the hole larger with a
hole saw.

Good luck on your endever. You might also want to pick up a mirror
on a shaft. This way you can look through the hole in the wall you made
to drill the hole in the wall sill plate. Most people use this hole for a
cable TV outlet or a computer IP cable connection. Then youjust add
a wall box, pull the cable and terminate the cable to a wall plate.

Jim

Greetings. How do I run coax from the attic, to the basement of my house. There must be something simple, because everyone has TV and radio antennas up there. I must be over-thinking it. Can you guys help? Thanks.

Mike F

 

[vmishg80]

Mike -

Welcome to the sub-terranian world of radio's !! You are lucker than you think with your Wife's comment:

"I don't care what you do in the basement" speech the other day, and she encouraged me to put an antenna somewhere else."

When you get a green light like that, then go fast and take as much room before she tells you she wants it back for a "Play Room"

My shack is in the basement and I have an attic full of antennas ranging from VHF low to 800Mhz yagi on a roter & omni's. They all perform very well for me and they have no signs of the outdoors.

Two things I'd suggest is:

1) If possible, run a conduit sufficiently large enough to accomodate 3 or 4 LMR400 sized cables. When (not if) you get more radios and antennas, you'll be glad you did. Adding another cable run and antenna will be simple then.

2) If you can't do #1 then buy LMR400 or similar - you'll be very pleased.

Have a good one.

Pete

 

[Don_Burke]

My house has a built-in problem routing coax, with a poured concrete floor between the main floor and the basement. I finally found the perfect route - the cold air return! This is a large duct that runs from the upstairs ceiling to the basement, to the furnace. It's easy to find - you'll probably see a grill on the wall which does not discharge warm or cool air. It's the path for air to get to your furnace/AC to be warmed/cooled and then discharged through the vents. Just go to the attic at the top of the duct, peel up a corner, run your coax into it, and drop it down to the basement. You can even take off the grill(s) and stick your arm in to help do that. And there's LOTS of room! Mine is about a foot or more wide. Hope this helps!

Make sure you seal that very well.

Even in the return line, it takes very little duct leakage to make a big difference in your utility bill.

 

[N0GTG]

Another idea - find a closet above your radio room, put a large PVC pipe in the back corner, and connect it to the attic and basement. You'll have a direct, protected route, and it will be out of the way. A large sewer-size pipe would be ideal, cheap, and in black it wouldn't be too noticeable in the dark. And, as KD4OSP suggested, seal it to keep unwanted hot/cold air or critters out. Either the regular screw-in caps drilled to accept your feed line, or duct tape would work.

 

[N_Jay]

1) If you put a duct of any kind between the basement and attic, please back fill the ends with fire proof insulation and cap it if possible.

2) If you run wires in any air ducts (supply or return) use only "Plenum Rated" cable.