Connecting a stripped coaxial cable to a battery?

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AJ89
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05 May 2013, 9:15 pm

Before I begin, I want to point out I'm completely new to this so please be patient with me :?

I am building a personal radio telescope and I am almost done except I need to connect it a battery. I have a RG-6 coaxial cable that I stripped on one end and I want to connect that end to a 12V lead-acid car battery. I know I'm supposed to connect the core to the positive terminal of the battery and the woven copper shield to the negative terminal of the battery. But what should I be using to connect the terminals to the stripped end of the cable?

I am using these articles as a reference:

Article 1
Article 2

The first article doesn't mention anything at all about what was used to connect the battery to the coaxial cable but there is a picture to see how it was set up. The second article makes use of a completely different power source (a car cigarette lighter plug) and uses speaker wire to connect it to the coaxial cable. But would speaker wire work on a car battery?

If not, what should I use?



Fnord
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05 May 2013, 10:17 pm

Find yourself a pair of cheap jumper cables.

Cut the cables about 10cm from where they connect to the clamps.

Splice the shield to the black clamp's cable stub, and the core to the red clamp's cable stub.

Connect the red clamp to the positive post of the battery, and the black clamp to the negative pole.

Do the hokey-pokey and then turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.



AJ89
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05 May 2013, 10:27 pm

Ok, thanks for helping me.