Homebrew antenna feedthrough panel

[WK5H]

I live in a rent house, so drilling through walls/floors with conduit simply isn't an option. I don't have just a whole lot of money to throw around, so, I also couldn't afford to buy anything but materials. My labor is cheap, so, it wasn't even an option to buy one. Off to the shop!

I started with what I call "plastic wood", which I've heard called PVC board. It's not as cheap as wood, but, it also doesn't rot. I bought about 10ft of it, knowing that I could easily screw up, and need more. I ended up using less than I expected.. There is some truth to the saying of "measure twice, cut once".

I then shined up a piece of scrap aluminum, cut to the size I needed, screwed it on to the plastic wood, and drilled the appropriate sized holes for the ground, the bulkhead, and polyphaser. It was actually very simple. Time consuming, but, simple. I also added some high density foam stripping around the edges to help keep out the weather.


Here's the finished results.



A little closer


The backside


The backside a little closer


Mounted in the window


All connected up


After about 30 minutes of cleaning up the desk area by wall mounting my network gear, and voila! My very simple but effective ham shack desk.


The only thing I will need to do since these are double windows, is to find a way to mount another piece of plastic wood under the interior window. I've already cut out a slot in it filled with more high density foam weatherstripping to accommodate the cables and let me close both windows. The problem is, the interior window closes lower, and when the second piece is installed, it doesn't line up with the pass through block. Oh well, it'll give me something else to work on

[N5RLR]

Excellent job, Brian. And, this is easily expandable should you have need for more feedthrough connections; antenna, emergency battery power, etc.

[KL7AJ]

A splendid job indeed.

And for the less handy, I notice that MFJ now makes a universal feedthrough panel.

When I lived in a log cabin, I simply poked all my lines through chinks in the logs. Now that I live in a newfangled house I use the dryer vent.

Eric

[W1SPD]

Just built one the other day myself. Where did you get your bulkhead connectors from?

[WK5H]

Just built one the other day myself. Where did you get your bulkhead connectors from?

The bulkhead for my dipole was given to me by a fellow friend/ham, but I've found them for less than $3 a piece online. I just hated to buy any online because the shipping would be more than the part, and I only needed one of them.

The polyphaser for my wireless bridge was one from a junk box at work.

The allthread for the ground was from a parts bin at my cousin's barn/workshop.

The only expense of all this was the plastic wood that cost me about $20. Other than that, all the parts were scavenged or given to me.

[KM3F]

Nice job.
I built one out of wood that fits a 36"wide window frame by 5" high.
Window needed to seal against the panel, outer storm window needed to seal against the panel and it needed to be full width (in/out) to be able to insulate it for winter and take a window air conditioner in summer set on it's flat top, and seal.
The job needs to be quite precision to effect all the sealing requirements.
Final job just fits with no sill or other alterations and is removable.

[AA4D]

Nice job! I think that stuff insulates better than wood too.

Check Universal Radio for feed-thrus, they have all sizes.

And for probably the first time I remember seeing on the forums, you spelled "voila" correctly.

[WA6MHZ]

I tried to make something like that, but I have 35 coaxes going through the window!!! So Ijust drilled holes in a block of wood like that and drill more holes when I add more coax. Have to RTV it really well to keep the SPIDERS out!

[NC5S]

I built one of these back in 2000 and found that it worked quite well.

Just ordered the parts to build another.

The only difference in mine and yours is that each feedthrough was isolated from the others.

[KD8HDQ]

I to live in a rental home as well. I am going with what you did but I have 6 antennas
2 are wire 1 scanner 1, 2meter 1, 70cm and 1, 10 meter no one has said any thing yet. now I am working on a home-brew 10 meter with 4 radials and a vertical. I have put a pole in the ground in cement and it works fine for the smaller ones but this new one is a lot bigger any ideas ???

WHAT A GREAT JOB !!!!!

Thanks
73's
KD8HDQ
Mark