A yellowjacket got in the house through the cracked shack window that I have my arm-thick bundle of coax running through, and I decided I had enough! Here’s a pic of my DIY feedthrough panel to get everything in and out.
The panel is made of 4″ x 1/8″ steel plate. Connectivity is:
- 8x SO-239 (I do operate 70cm, even weak signal, but really I rely on well-installed connectors and don’t see much point in mixed SO239/N environment – I run an adapter on my IC-475, and the rest is 239/259)
- 4x F connector – OTA TV and FM and receive antennas
- 1x pair high voltage feedthroughs for open wire line. These are interesting – I drilled 1/2″ holes, used 1/4 x 20 rod stock for the conductors, PVC end caps and then the stripped shield from some LMR400 scraps for an insulator between the rod stock and the edge of the holes
- 1 pair ‘in-use’ boxes with flip-up lids, for random stuff like cat5 lines (mesh network etc) and rotator cable
- 2 ground lugs, about 1″ of thread on either side of the plate, heavily star washered and ‘cranked down’
Paint is ye olde Rustoleum Black, my favorite general use ‘just cover it’ paint. I’ve left a little bit of room and drilled the tiniest indents for another pair of SO-239’s and F’s if needed in the future.
