Re: Connecting 16th century antenna wire to 21st century coax

["BruceR" <br@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You can pick up a 300 ohm to 75 ohm matching transformer from Radio
Shack, Wal-Mart or even Walgreens for a couple of bucks. The 2 wires
from your existing flat cable connect to one side and a coax cable
connects to the other through a standard F connector.

From:bruno.lerer@xxxxxxxxx
bruno.lerer@xxxxxxxxx

> 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.