Re: [VAL] Old Airstream Radio

[Roger Moseley <rmoseley@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bill, that's a coax cable. The copper outside is the ground and the 
inside wire is the RF energy. You ought to be able to use a standard 
modern radio antenna plug to mate this to a new radio. The inner wire 
goes to the center conductor of the male plug--if you get the right one 
and the coax is the right type, the connector should slide right over 
the copper, making its own ground connection. You'd have to solder the 
center wire to the tip of the male connector.

Yes, use a 12V car radio. I've put them in 3 Airstreams so far--they 
have all the right controls for fade and balance to take advantage of 
the usual 4 speakers in an Airstream. The only thing you have to do 
right is make sure the keep-alive 12V is connected right, or you'll lose 
all your presets every time you turn the radio off--the radio will have 
two +12V lines, one for "power" and the other can be variously labeled, 
often called ant (for antenna) power. This was for powered antennas so 
that when you turned the radio off, the antenna had power to retract 
itself. But it also powered the memory when the radio was off.

Roger