Coax to 20 gauge?

[bb]

I'm doing a little "garage experimenting" and would appreciate some
insight wiring. Is it possible to convert a coax cable to a small
wire, say 20 gauge wire, then back to coax? It would be for a very
short length--inches not feet. I'm sure that it's physically possible,
but what kind of interference or other problems should I expect?

Thanks much!

 

[Tim Williams]

Depends on what's going through it. Anything above, say, 100MHz is probably
going to radiate like nuts. You can minimize loss by running the wires
closely spaced (twisted together works well). Remember to bond the shield
with the shield and core wire to core...

Tim

 

[bb]

Thanks, Tim. It will be a tv cable signal, but I don't know the
frequency. So a simple bonding, and twist the wires, and presto?

 

[DaveC]

Thus spake bb:

I'm doing a little "garage experimenting" and would appreciate some
insight wiring. Is it possible to convert a coax cable to a small
wire, say 20 gauge wire, then back to coax? It would be for a very
short length--inches not feet. I'm sure that it's physically possible,
but what kind of interference or other problems should I expect?

<
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-
1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=311124>

An example of a commercial product that accepts 50-ohm video input and
converts it to 100-ohm for conductance across Cat-5 twisted-pair cable. 2 are
required, one at each end of the Cat-5 cable.

I'm sure that inside these adapters they're using just a tiny toroidal
transformer for converting these impedances. If you find a small
impedance-matching transformer, that would probably do it for you.

Good luck,

 

[ehsjr]

I'm doing a little "garage experimenting" and would appreciate some
insight wiring. Is it possible to convert a coax cable to a small
wire, say 20 gauge wire, then back to coax? It would be for a very
short length--inches not feet. I'm sure that it's physically possible,
but what kind of interference or other problems should I expect?

Thanks much!

Sure. Best to put a connector on the coax; a mating
connector on a diecast metal box; the 20 gauge wire;
another connector on the box; finally a connector on
the coax.

---------------
_| |_
coax====|_o---------------o_|======coax
| |
---------------

The problems will depend on circumstances
which you have not identified, but the above
will attenuate the signal in any case.

Ed

 

[Ralph Mowery]

Thanks, Tim. It will be a tv cable signal, but I don't know the
frequency. So a simple bonding, and twist the wires, and presto?

It could cause all kinds of problems. Some chanels could be sucked out
completly, really weakened , or it may go unnoticed all together. It could
also let in other interfering singnals in due to the break in the outer
shield.