My first thought was to punch out a single pane of the window, sandwich 2 pieces of plywood to cover the opening and use the barrel connectors to make the connections. As thoughtful as the towel buffer appeared, it was no match for 10 degree (F) weather and 25 MPH winds. To maintain the security of the house, I had to reverse the operation after I was QRT so that the window could be secured.

This was only a temporary fix for several reasons. I folded a towel and laid it horizontally on the bottom of the window frame to pad the coax and to provide some draft protection. With the placement of my antennas, I was able to route the feed lines in a way that they would drop off of the roof and fall directly in front (or very close to) a window that led into my radio room.Īs a temporary fix, I simply opened the window and ran the coax into the house. But that would have added 50-100 feet of more feed line per antenna that I wasn’t willing to buy nor accept the loss for the longer runs. I could have used the same entrance as the satellite dish coax and just ran the feed lines into the radio room from there. That being the case, I was in search of my own solution.ĭrilling through 8″ block, wall board and then exterior brick for a really long barrel connector wasn’t my first choice. After asking a few friends who have already conquered this obstacle, I found that I wasn’t as fortunate to have an abandoned dryer vent or other previously established receptacle that would allow for the direct entrance of coax with little to no modification. I also wanted to keep the modification as ”non-permanent” as possible Not because I didn’t have the intention of remaining in the hobby, but because I wasn’t sure if the basement would be the permanent location of the radio station. The goal was to move the the signal to and from the radio with the lowest loss possible but yet keeping the house as sealed as possible from the weather elements and unwanted pest. So, as with most Ham radio operators, I had the dilemma of the proper way to bring the antenna coax into the shack.

How do you make the two connect in the most efficient manner?

Ham radio antenna patch panel