Radar Splice solution

[Kyle Ewing]

My radar is mast mounted with a terminal strip at the splice at the base of the mast.  I've been fighting with the video cable (tiny, 3mm coax) for years as the ends are so fragile they require re-soldering every year after stepping.  Tonight I found a solution:  BNC coax connectors.  The coax is RG316.

I ordered the following from Digi-Key (http://www.digikey.com/):
(1) 290-1009-ND, CABLE MOLDED RG58/U 12" w/2 male connectors, $7.95 each
(4, 2 needed plus 2 spares) ARF1674-ND, CONN BNC JACK CRIMP RG316 female socket, $4.06 each

It took me less than an hour to crimp the ends and test.  So far the signal seems much stronger than I've seen before and the connection is much more durable, plus it's easy to disconnect when needed.  We'll see how weather proof it turns out to be.  This might be a fix for broken GPS antenna cables and other coax wires.

I hope this helps someone with a similar problem.