I ended up buying RG-8x, and two solderless connectors: one PL-259 and
one BNC. Also bought a nylon rail mount, which turned out to be an
ordeal in and of itself. No matter how much I tightened the thing, it
kept slipping.

I ended up drilling a hole through the bracket and into the rail into
which I put a machine screw. That seems to have done the trick.
Connected the solderless connector on the radio end; seems good to go,
but who knows. Went to do the antenna end and realized that the sales
guy at West Marine gave me a connector for a smaller cable and I
didn't check it at the store! Drat.

I know you guys recommended against the solderless connectors, but I
couldn't find a pre-made cable with a BNC on one end and a PL-259 on
the other and I sure as heck have no clue on how to solder anything.
Looks like I'm going to Boater's World tomorrow to see if they have
the solderless connector that I need. Debating whether to ditch this
rail mount and get a solid suface mount instead to attach to the side
of my console.. This piece of crap rail mount was $30.

This is turning out to be one of the more frustrating things for such
a simple little project.

I returned the BNC fitting today in exchange for a PL-259 and got the
BNC adapter at Radio Shack. So I'm figuring I'm all set and jammed up
right. Get back to the house excited about finishign the project and
I put the fittings together to test fit, put it in place in the
antenna and see that the fittings themselves are protruding from the
cable and that the mount that the antenna screws into, isn't wide
enough to accomodate the fittings. I guess now it is back to the
drawing board to get a new mount that will accomodate this mess.

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 04:07:53 GMT, Charlie Brown
wrote:

I ended up buying RG-8x, and two solderless connectors: one PL-259 and
one BNC. Also bought a nylon rail mount, which turned out to be an
ordeal in and of itself. No matter how much I tightened the thing, it
kept slipping.

I ended up drilling a hole through the bracket and into the rail into
which I put a machine screw. That seems to have done the trick.
Connected the solderless connector on the radio end; seems good to go,
but who knows. Went to do the antenna end and realized that the sales
guy at West Marine gave me a connector for a smaller cable and I
didn't check it at the store! Drat.

Ah - well, if I had thought to ask about the connectors, which I
didn't, I could have saved you some trouble.

What you will need to do is to obtain another PL-259 and a BNC
adaptor. You can obtain the adaptor at Radio Shack - not sure if West
has the appropriate adaptor or not.

If you are using solderless connectors, do yourself a favor and make
sure they are water tight, or at least resistant, by using some shrink
tubing on the antenna connector end. You can also pick up some
potting compound at Radio Shack - it's a putty like material, comes in
a roll and is used to seal areas where leaks may occur.

I know you guys recommended against the solderless connectors, but I
couldn't find a pre-made cable with a BNC on one end and a PL-259 on
the other and I sure as heck have no clue on how to solder anything.
Looks like I'm going to Boater's World tomorrow to see if they have
the solderless connector that I need. Debating whether to ditch this
rail mount and get a solid suface mount instead to attach to the side
of my console.. This piece of crap rail mount was $30.

The problem is that there is no grip on the SS rail. Nylon and
polished SS don't get along very well. A very simple solution is to
either wrap a piece of duct tape (say two turns around the rail) where
you are going to place the antenna mount or a high grade 3M electrical
tape - that will give the mount some grip.

Of course the other solution is to use a permanent mount, but if you
are hole adverse, the tape solution may be the best option.

Wrap a piece of sandpaper and that also works.