Antenna cord length?

[Phacade]

I'm getting ready to put in a new stereo and (naturally) antenna in my '75 280Z. Whats the best way to route the antenna cord?

I picked up a fairly nice aftermarket antenna (non-power) but I am not certain the cord is long enough. I picked up some "extension" for it, but now I might end up with too much or not enough; one extreme or the other. Is there a way to splice the cord so as to not have too much?

[LanceM]

Unless your original coax is damaged you should be able to plug right in to the old cable with the new right back at the antenna mount location. The original antenna only has about a foot of cable on it, the rest is part of the wiring harness.

[EScanlon]

Sorry Lance, but the antenna coax is routed along the driver's side, unless the 75's are different. Other than that, you're correct.

As far as splicing the antenna coax, if you have access to the coax cable crimper AND the end piece necessary to make it into a car radio antenna and not tv cable, then you should have no problem. Without that tool, I would not recommend it, as the antenna cable and signal doesn't take well to splices.

Enrique

[Phacade]

So in other words, I am liable to end up with extra cable? The old stereo is going away and a new CD player is going in.

[EScanlon]

So in other words, I am liable to end up with extra cable? ...snip...

The old stereo ...snip...

That's correct.

Were they stereo? The earlier ones were Mono, so I'm wondering what year they began offering stereo as a stock option. Then it would be easy to find the speaker bracket for the RH side.

Enrique

[LanceM]

Sorry Lance, but the antenna coax is routed along the driver's side, unless the 75's are different. Other than that, you're correct.

As far as splicing the antenna coax, if you have access to the coax cable crimper AND the end piece necessary to make it into a car radio antenna and not tv cable, then you should have no problem. Without that tool, I would not recommend it, as the antenna cable and signal doesn't take well to splices.

Enrique

Terminoligy is getting us here I think, there should be no need to splice the antenna coax at the antenna end or at the radio end. The antenna end of the routed (through the car) coax should have a female connector (which the stock antenna plugs into), the radio end a male. A new antenna will have a coax of what ever lenght with a male connector on it. All you should have to do to replace the stock motorized antenna with any after market one is remove the old one and unplug the coax at the antenna end and plug in the new one, on the radio end unplug the antenna coax from the old radio and plug in the new radio. You shouldn't have to route a new cable all of the way from the antenna to the radio unless your original has been cut or damaged. As Enrique mentioned splicing isn't really an option unless you use the right connectors which are hard to find now a days, and it is some strange impeadance if I remember right like 85 ohms or something like that making it in a class of it's own compaired to most RF coax.

Maybe I'm confused but I just wanted to clairify my first post to make sure I wasn't confusing everyone else

[EScanlon]

...snip...there should be no need to splice the antenna coax at the antenna end or at the radio end.

--snip--

You shouldn't have to route a new cable all of the way from the antenna to the radio unless your original has been cut or damaged. ...snip...

Maybe that is what I should have said.

One other note, if you choose to use the new cable you bought, and it proves to be too long, LOOP the excess back by the antenna, but do it in as big a loop as you can or as few loops as needed.. I remember the rep for one of the stereo lines we were selling way back when mention that tightly wound excess antenna cable did something, but I can't remember what it was. I DO remember that he insisted that you should use up the excess antenna cable in as FEW loops as required to fit in the space you had to hide the excess in. This also coincides with what I remember the CB radio guy said.

FWIW

Enrique

[LanceM]

Maybe that is what I should have said.

One other note, if you choose to use the new cable you bought, and it proves to be too long, LOOP the excess back by the antenna, but do it in as big a loop as you can or as few loops as needed.. I remember the rep for one of the stereo lines we were selling way back when mention that tightly wound excess antenna cable did something, but I can't remember what it was. I DO remember that he insisted that you should use up the excess antenna cable in as FEW loops as required to fit in the space you had to hide the excess in. This also coincides with what I remember the CB radio guy said.

FWIW

Enrique

Enrique is right on with the looping, though it is more important when operating a transmitter on the coax than a receiver it is a good practice to follow anytime AC or RF go through a line. Another little tidbit is never bend coax in a radius tighter than 10 times it's diameter, it might crush and change it's impeadance, again more important in xmit than receive but it will cause loss and if you are looking at a weak signal it could be the differance between getting it and not.

Now you can go and brag to your better half that you have learned something today, whether it will ever be of any practical use... time will tell