View Single Post
  #1   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair,comp.home.automation,sci.electronics.repair,rec.radio.amateur.antenna
 
Posts: n/a
Default Connecting 16th century antenna wire to 21st century coax

Yet another strange question from yours truly: on the roof of my house,
anchored to the chimney, is a large outdoor antenna. No idea which
antenna - it was installed before my time, probably 15 years ago (or
more) and, for various reasons, I can't climb on the roof to find
out. From that antenna and into the house runs a brown cable (or is it
wire?) labeled "Belden Celluline 9275 300 ohm UHF transmission" and
a bunch of patent numbers.

For some strange reason (it may have been done by the cable company
when cable was first installed in the house - also before my time),
that Belden cable was cleanly cut mid-way through its run across the
basement. While it doesn't look like any twin-lead cable I've seen
before (and, admittedly, I haven't seen that many), it has a white
core which looks like frozen foam and what appear to be two very thin
metal lines, one on each side of the core.

And the question: I want to find out if that antenna+cable setup still
delivers a signal. I would like to do it by connecting the Belden
cable to a standard RG6 coax and then to a regular or HD tuner. I
understand that this connection would require a gizmo called a balun
but that's as far as my understanding goes. So what type of balun is
it (if there is more than one)? How difficult is it to find? I imagine
I need to strip the Belden cable on one hand and the RG6 on the other
in order to connect them to the balun. Is it possible and, if so, how
is it done?

Thanks.