This is what they tell you when you buy a FireStick antenna. I wouldn't splice it or shorten it, These Wranglers are hard to SWR tune anyway, why add more problems?
How to Repair / Splice Coax Cable
- Thread starter SSTJ
- Start date
OP
Hey. Yep, again, this is a topic that gets discussed in other threads on the forum. I've heard arguments on both sides.
For this thread, I just wanted to know how to splice, not whether.
If you are fixing a coax cable with a break in the middle and not dealing with very very high frequencies then a simple and careful repair with a soldering iron will work fine. It will result in almost no signal loss and all you will get is a slightly stiff section where the repair was made. Just cut the damaged section and with an exacto knife, peel away the cable layers. Cut the center insulation which is probably like a teflon tube into a slotted barrel section about 1" long. Split it. Then solder the center wire carefully, a simple butt joint or twist will work. Carefully put the split insulation over your solder joint and wrap it with 1 or two layers of electrical tape. Carefully stretch the braid that is the outer layer over this and mesh it together. Twist and solder a few strands of the overlap so there is a solid connection of the shield. Then wrap this layer with tape, if you carefully split the original insulation you can even get that back in place pretty well. Wrap it in tape and it's done. This repair only slightly changes the diameter of the center conductor and that only matters at microwave frequencies well beyond what you are using the cable for. You wont be able to detect the repair electrically at all.
On sections that need to be strong I've wrapped steel wire on the outside to keep it from bending at the repair, coat hanger wire works.
