# Car antenna cable as been cut



## nenours

Hello, I just bought a used in-dash cd player for my car and the antena cable has been cut... my question is: can I just connect it like any other electric cable? ( with tape )

Tanks.


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## Soundy

You CAN reconnect it, but it can be tricky: your antenna uses a coaxial cable, with a center conductor surrounded by a shield. Each has to be re-connected properly and kept separate from each other. I'd strongly recommend soldering the wires, especially the inner conductor.

Frankly, you're probably better off just replacing the whole wire (which depending on the car may or may not include the antenna itself).


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## McTimson

You'll be happier later if you just buy a new cable, if you try to reconnect it now, once you stuff the CD player back in, it might mess up the cable again, and you'll get bad radio reception. They're cheap, you'll probably be able to get a whole cable and antenna for like $20 at the most, I would think, and it should be available at any auto parts store.


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## nenours

First of all , tanks for your answer .. but sorry ... english is not my first language so maybe my question was not well asked....
its not the cable in the car that have been cut... its the antenna cable on the cd player that have been cut... and the cable on the cd player is not removable... I was thinking if it is possible to atach a new femele conector to it... can you buy this ?


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## Soundy

You can find them at many auto-parts stores... you may need to get an antenna-wire extension cable and cut the female end off of that. There are also adapters available that will let you plug a standard antenna connector into the oddball connectors some decks use (like some Nissan factory decks), which you could cut the female end from.

You might find it more reliable to open up the deck and solder the new wire directly to the circuit board, rather than trying to splice into the stub of wire left behind.


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## JohnWill

You can indeed attach a coax connector to the cable.


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## Soundy

FINDING *just* the female car-antenna-cable connector with solder tabs may not be so easy, though...


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## nenours

JohnWill said:


> You can indeed attach a coax connector to the cable.


I really like your suggestion ... in this case I suppose that I have to cut the car cable and to put another coax connector and attach it together...


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## JohnWill

That would be one way. You might be able to cobble a female mating connector for the car antenna connection to avoid hacking yet another cable.


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## cwwozniak

Soundy said:


> FINDING *just* the female car-antenna-cable connector with solder tabs may not be so easy, though...


Who needs solder tabs?

*Solderless Motorola-Type Inline Jack* 
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...less&kw=motorola+solderless&parentPage=search


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