Help identifying antenna jack

[SammyT]

I bought a $20 tv tuner. I need some help identifying the antenna jack (see 1st pic below, red arrow). I have cable tv hooked up to it that normally would use a coax cable. I Frankenstein'd it (see 2nd pic below) by taking a coax cable, cutting off the end and soldering the center wire of the coax cable to a piece of Romex wire that fits into the center contact of the antenna jack and soldered an alligator clip to the braided ground wire of the severed coax cable that I clip onto the ground contact on the antenna jack. It works fine but I'd prefer getting the proper adapter that would adapt the coax cable to the antenna jack. The jack is larger than coaxial cable (or a standard RCA plug) and the center wire is much larger than a coax cable center wire (probably around 1/8").

Does anybody know what that type of antenna jack is called?

 

[Bluejets]

Called a male "PAL" connector.

If you want to connect to RG59 coax, there is a screw type adaptor.
If RG6 coax, use a crimp type male PAL adaptor.

 

[SammyT]

Thanks! Does this look correct?

 

[davenn]

Thanks! Does this look correct?
View attachment 25733

That's an adaptor Belling-Lee (PAL) to F connector adaptor, you would still need an F connector

this is what you really want

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-RF-A...085032?hash=item25a9c588a8:g:FYgAAOSwfcVT~ZB2



Dave

 

[SammyT]

It looks like the one you posted, if I am understanding correctly, would be what I would crimp on to the severed coax cable I cut the F connector off of and soldered my monkey business on to.

I would rather use a non-custom cable so that I can use standard tv cables that have F connectors on each end... easier to replace if it breaks.

If that is the case, could I use the adapter I posted?

 

[SammyT]

I would rather have a 90˚ adapter... is this it? (only asking because the listing title is a bit different and I want to make sure)

 

[dorke]

It looks like the one you posted, if I am understanding correctly, would be what I would crimp on to the severed coax cable I cut the F connector off of and soldered my monkey business on to.

I would rather use a non-custom cable so that I can use standard tv cables that have F connectors on each end... easier to replace if it breaks.

If that is the case, could I use the adapter I posted?

Yes,
use it,that's what it's made for!

EDIT:The 90˚is fine as well.

 

[SammyT]

Great, thanks a lot to everyone who replied.

Background boring story: I bought this for $26 from a California seller because I didn't want to wait and get it from China for $18. I messaged the seller asking what adapter was needed to hook up cable tv. Back and forth messages went on for about a week. First they emailed me and asked for me to "send video of problem". It took 9 messages and the final one (I just copied it from my eBay messages) was "Could you please tell us which input jack is which button?How about we refund 5USD to you and could you please fix the goods on local repair shop?". I'm not trying to make fun of them, I can barely speak my only language sometimes but the whole thing was beyond bizarre. Maybe I'm trying to make up for this thread being such lame Saturday night entertainment

Also: the unit is actually good and is a great way to use an old monitor for a tv. The bad is that the speaker sounds like a small radio (I use an external amp & speaker), when you use the computer input the remote's volume doesn't work, when you search for cable channels the channels are renumbered and some are put in random order so all the channel numbers are wonky, when it arrived the menu was set to Chinese and it took an hour until I randomly selected English (nice) and the manual sets new records for the worst written of all time (surprised?).

On the good, I have it hooked up to cable and that works nicely, you can program it to skip channels, and I also have my Macbook hooked up to it. It selects tv or computer automatically, so if I just wake the computer up I can play Youtube stuff, and then close the Macbook and it switches to tv, there's no selecting inputs hassle. The picture is fine and it has normal color/tint/aspect ratio etc controls.

Thanks people and I've got to say that I wish all forums flowed like this one - uploading pics, editing posts... this the smoothest, non-aggravating one I've been on, whoever designed it should get free fries for life!

 

[dorke]

Great, thanks a lot to everyone who replied.

Background boring story: I bought this for $26 from a California seller because I didn't want to wait and get it from China for $18. I sent the seller asking what adapter i needed to hook up my cable tv (same query as here). The back and forth messages went on for about a week. First they emailed me and asked, in the most incoherent fashion imaginable, for me to "send video of problem". It took 9 messages and the final one (I just copied it from my eBay messages) was "Could you please tell us which input jack is which button?How about we refund 5USD to you and could you please fix the goods on local repair shop?". I'm not trying to make fun of them, I can barely speak my only language sometimes but the whole thing was beyond bizarre. Maybe I'm trying to make up for this thread being such lame Saturday night entertainment

That connector is the standard in all the "PAL countries".
Show it to a toddler and he will recognize it on the spot
For the Yankees though,it is a kind of UFO...I guess.

Looks like you got your unit from a Chinese store after all

 

[SammyT]

RE Looks like you got your unit from a Chinese store after all

No, it was a store in Los Angeles...







... called Hong Kong Ting Hui Limited

 

[hevans1944]

Enjoy it while you still can. My cable service provider (Internet and Basic TV) recently sent me a "descrambler" box to go between my TV antenna input and the cable service. Seems that too many folks in this area are somehow getting a "free ride" off the cable plant, so Time Warner Cable is "upgrading" to all digital TV in June 2016. I have received four of these Cisco boxes for three TVs currently active here. The initial cost is zero, but TWC says they reserve the right to start charging a monthly fee. I may just install an outdoor antenna again and go back to OTA TV viewing. The stuff they send out on the cable is mostly garbage anyway, so might as well watch OTA garbage for free. Well, at least my privately owned cable modem allows 20 Mbps + downloads and I subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime for a "better" viewing selection. TWC sometimes throttles my download speed however, noticeable when hi-def TV automagically reverts to standard definition, as it did last night while watching NCIS Season 13 on Amazon. What a COS wired cable service is unless you are in a fiber-optics delivery area, which I currently am not. And I don't have an unobstructed line-of-sight (too many trees) to a radio link from an office tower in downtown Dayton, or I would have switched to that years ago. Maybe Florida will be different.

 

[SammyT]

...Time Warner Cable is "upgrading" to all digital TV in June 2016...

I'm on TWC so I wouldn't be surprised if that happens here (Oahu) too. We live in a world where you're not supposed to own anything anymore... why buy a car when you can lease it? I think if GoDaddy could go back in time they'd stop my parents from naming me and instead rent me my name by the month.

I'd use an antenna but I live in a valley surrounded by 2,000' vertical mountains so there's zero reception. Very scenic tho

Current thinking is that if it's not new it's garbage, so throw away that '56 Stratocaster and trade your vintage Dom Perignon for fresh squeezed.

Luckily I have faith that there are more good people than crooks and eventually it will all work out.

 

[davenn]

I would rather have a 90˚ adapter... is this it? (only asking because the listing title is a bit different and I want to make sure)
View attachment 25737

so you STILL need to buy male F connectors as well

 

[SammyT]

Am I the only one that has seen this routine over and over again:

You search for a product and it says it's "free shipping" on the first page (1st pic) with all the other similar products, thus when you search with "price + shipping: lowest first" it comes up near or at the top. Then when you click on the product the true shipping cost is revealed to be $2.49 (2nd pic).
tricky, tricky, tricky

 

[SammyT]

so you STILL need to buy male F connectors as well

Why do I need to buy F connectors if the coaxial cables I have already terminate in F connectors?

 

[davenn]

Why do I need to buy F connectors if the coaxial cables I have already terminate in F connectors?

well you didn't say that in your first post, you were showing a hacked unterminated photo

I only just saw that it was some 5 posts down that you made the F connector comment

But that hack made it look like there were no F connectors on the cable !!

 

[SammyT]

Sorry about that. It did have an F connector that I cut off to make the Frankenstein'd cable. Like most people here probably do I've got a bunch of spare coax hookup cables with F terminals.

I appreciate all the responses - thanks