Im looking for a solution to my problem. Im building a stereo system using an automotive stereo and a computer power supply. Everything is hooked up and working except for the antenna. I live deep in a valley in a mountainous area located far from any FM station, so my reception is quite weak. However I have designed an antenna with high gain and it works pretty well with my home stereo and I think it would do excellent with my latest project. The trouble Im having is the antenna plug on the rear of the head unit. Its the normal plug for a car antenna, with the center probe and the shield. I think its called a motorola plug. I have no such plug, nor do I want to spend any cash for a twist on plug, nor do I wish to open up the receiver and do any soldering. What can i substitute for this plug? A normal rca plug will fit, if I trim off some of the insulation, but I don't think it is making much contact. Anyone have any ideas what I can use? Im not above using a piece of wire and just sticking it in the hole for the plug if it will work... I guess im looking for another type plug that I can modify to use for this setup. Currently looking for an old car antenna that I can salvage the plug from,, but no luck thus far. What else could work? Any ideas?




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Like this?

 

yes, what can i substitute?

 

yes, what can i substitute?

For that price, why would you want to try to substitute?

 

Because I have no money.

 

Because I have no money.

You might try an auto wrecking yard.

 

Typical , $100 on a stereo and 50¢ on an aerial! !

 

head unit was given to me...free.. think ill walk up the road to local junk yard and try to find a freebie..

 

My first thought was an auto wrecking yard as well. And for just cutting off the connector, they might just say go ahead and keep it. I've gone there to gather some dash switches and found that I often get them very cheap.

But if you really don't want to go that route then get some cable like the stuff you get to connect your TV to the F type connector on the wall or cable box. Take the cable and strip off a couple inches of outer shielding and carefully fold it back. Then a quarter inch from there, remove the rest of the antenna center lead and fold it half back upon itself. The beaded cable might be enough to hold the shield in the radio.

Years ago I had a spool of that cable stuff. I worked inside a steel building with a steel building inside it. Radio reception was almost impossible. So I ran a length of that cable from my radio out and on top of the inner steel building over to the outer shell of the outer steel building. I cut and stripped 2 feet from the end and soldered the center lead to the shielding and the shielding to the center lead, thus making the inner cable connected to the two foot outer shielded cable and then stuck it out through a small hole in the wall. I got all kinds of reception. All I had to do was continually trim a quarter to a half inch off at a time until I got full reception. At first I got good reception on the low end, which meant the antenna was on the long side. Then I kept trimming it down until I got good reception equally on the high end and on the low end. Everybody was jealous of my ability to pull in radio signals. But the cable length has to be right and so does the exposed (aerial) wire.

But if you don't want to spend a penny then just make your own connector. Get an empty Comet can and break off the aluminum bottom. Cut and shape it and roll it until you have a shield connector. Then take the center lead and connect it to another strip of aluminum you've rolled into a pin. Cut it to length carefully. If it's too long trim off a small portion. If you haven't trimmed off enough you can trim more. But if you cut too much then you have to start over. I once made an RCA jack that way, rolling aluminum from a comet can. Just to see if it could be done.

 

Wow.. thanks tony!... never thought of that!... just what I was looking for... I think it will work...

 

It's not easy making a small rolled pin. Takes a bit of manipulation to get it to roll that tightly. And then you have to figure out a way to make the wire stay inside it. Perhaps if you make it longer than the rolled pin and stick it through and fold it up at the end. Making solder stick to aluminum - well, I don't think I've ever been successful at that. So you might have to cut a slit and stick the wire in the slit then close it up tightly. And I'm not sure how well it's going to conduct; aluminum is not a notoriously great conductor, though it WAS used in some house wiring some years back. (U.S.)

 

yea. aluminum was used for wiring ---back in the day---- i can roll up some metal for the shield, (keep rolling untill i get the diameter i need., then maybe just use some tape to secure it, or a small clamp of some sort..... for the inside conductor, im thinking ill just fold it up on itself just to increase the diameter...if it don't break, as most coax are brittle and will snap off if you attempt to bend it the whole 180 degrees. If that don't work,,, i can find something else to use as center conductor..