Antenna wire through windows? Questions.

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hackinstack

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Here is my situation...

I am located in a 3rd floor condo in Chicago and would like to run wire from an antenna sitting on my deck to my office about 30ft away. I would like to avoid running the wire through the walls (concrete and steel construction) and think it will be no problem to hang it along the outside of the wall. Currently, this will be receive-only. I have a couple questions:

- What is the best way to run through the window?
- Do I have to worry about any performance decrease with that long of a length from Ant to radio?
- How can it be grounded? (no pipes, metal railing is screwed into brick without a contact to earth)

Thanks in advance
 

jackj

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You don't mention what bands you plan to monitor, that will make a difference. Thirty feet of RG58 won't have much attenuation at 3.7 MHz but a lot at 1300 MHz. Also, if you dent coax cable you place an impedance bump at the dent. This will cause some of the received signal to be reflected back to the antenna resulting in even more signal loss. You will need a method of feeding the coax through the window without smashing or denting it. Without seeing your windows, I can't tell you how to run the cable.

As for grounding the antenna, it isn't needed on most types of antennas for proper performance.

Jack j
 

hackinstack

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I'm really just looking to pull in everything better. I currently have a Radio Shack discone which does great with VHF just sitting inside. Everything else I've tried to hear I've had poor luck on. I wanted to move that outside on the deck and look into getting a PAR EF-SWL for HF as well. (not sure this is even worth trying here in the city though)
 
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SCPD

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Window feed

Here is my situation...

I am located in a 3rd floor condo in Chicago and would like to run wire from an antenna sitting on my deck to my office about 30ft away. I would like to avoid running the wire through the walls (concrete and steel construction) and think it will be no problem to hang it along the outside of the wall. Currently, this will be receive-only. I have a couple questions:

- What is the best way to run through the window?
- Do I have to worry about any performance decrease with that long of a length from Ant to radio?
- How can it be grounded? (no pipes, metal railing is screwed into brick without a contact to earth)

Thanks in advance

Does the window raise or open? Some people will cut a board the same width as the window, like maybe a 2x4 or 1x3, depending on the thickness of the window, and cut to fit to where you can close the window on the board and have a airtight fit. Then just drill holes to your hearts content through the board.
 

Bill1

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Thanks for this Jim - it looks like just what I have been looking for and I ordered one tonight.

I've been using an MFJ window pass-through, which works fine, but is something I don't want to leave in place as a permanent solution. Since there have been a number of break-ins in this area recently [sigh] I don't even like to leave the pass-through in place overnight as I used to do, resulting in less ham radio fun for me.

The Comet CTC-50M is something that can be left in place all the time, and will pass the 100w PEP I run, so should allow for a permanent solution that allows the rig to be fired up even when only a brief operating time is possible.

73,

Bill
 

davidmc36

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Here is my situation...

I am located in a 3rd floor condo in Chicago and would like to run wire from an antenna sitting on my deck to my office about 30ft away. I would like to avoid running the wire through the walls (concrete and steel construction) and think it will be no problem to hang it along the outside of the wall. Currently, this will be receive-only. I have a couple questions:

- What is the best way to run through the window?

I did one by slightly enlarging a drain hole at the bottom of the vinyl frame of a sliding window. You can get inductive couplers that stick to each side of the glass and the signal gets passed from one to the other. If the glass is very thick or you replace the two-way tape with something thicker or of the wrong composition you can experience some significant signal loss.
- Do I have to worry about any performance decrease with that long of a length from Ant to radio?

I think you can lose more with something like the inductive coupler than 30ft of just about any coax. Coax Calculator
- How can it be grounded? (no pipes, metal railing is screwed into brick without a contact to earth)

Thanks in advance
 

hackinstack

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Sep 29, 2008
Messages
33
Thanks for this Jim - it looks like just what I have been looking for and I ordered one tonight.

I've been using an MFJ window pass-through, which works fine, but is something I don't want to leave in place as a permanent solution. Since there have been a number of break-ins in this area recently [sigh] I don't even like to leave the pass-through in place overnight as I used to do, resulting in less ham radio fun for me.

The Comet CTC-50M is something that can be left in place all the time, and will pass the 100w PEP I run, so should allow for a permanent solution that allows the rig to be fired up even when only a brief operating time is possible.

73,

Bill

I'm of the same thinking Bill -- how much is that CTC-50M? I couldn't find a price on their price list...

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone!
 

litavecz

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Highland Indiana
a good alternative for rg58 coax is rg8x.ran 75' of this out a window to a hustler dcx discone antenna on the roof of my house.I live in N.W. Indiana and have heard conversations on 10 meter band from Ohio and S.Carolina so far.
 

Bill1

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Feb 28, 2003
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Parsippany, NJ
I'm of the same thinking Bill -- how much is that CTC-50M? I couldn't find a price on their price list...

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone!

I ordered from R&L Electronics last night and it shipped today. It ran $50.32 with USPS Priority shipping included.

I've been very satisfied with all my dealings with R&L in the past, including in person at the Dayton Hamvention® last year, and in this case they also had one of the lowest overall costs I could find.

[The usual disclaimer applies - I have no affiliation with them whatsoever.]

Now, SLJ2137694 you have got me thinking about a second one - would make for a good way of passing a scanner antenna feed in for extending listening range and variety a bit.

Can't wait to try this out and see how it does.

Bill
 

SLJ2137694

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Mar 9, 2008
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Lehighton, PA
Both of mine are feeding a Yaesu 897-D transciever. I have a SWL listening antenna on one and a discone antenna on the other. Since I do not have a ham radio license, listening is all I can do!
 
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