Vintage Antenna TV Wire Connector

[Ed in Tx]

I remember my Dad had one of those from the 300 Ohm twin-lead to the back of the TV. Idea was to easily disconnect it in a lightning storm or when moving the TV out to clean behind it. Got rid of all that in the late '60s when we put up a Winegard "Super Colortron" antenna with the new-fangled 75 Ohm coax.

[kx250rider]

Radio Shack had a package of those in various colors, but last time I saw them, must have been 1979-ish. I'm sure they show up on eBay now & then. All TV repair shops had them for the bench antenna connections.

Charles

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by N2IXK

Were these connectors ever that common?

The whole reason for them was to be able to quickly connect/disconnect the antenna wire. Not something that the average set owner did often enough to care about.

The only place I ever saw them used was on repair shop service benches, or on the output of portable test gear like bar/dot generators. Once the 75 ohm era came along, we used the push-on type F connectors for the same reason, but they were a lot less durable...

Mostly they were found in homes of folks who disconnected the antenna wire during a thunderstorm.

Thanks for the photo Marty, you got all the colors too!

[BigDavesTV]

These clips are great! I still have 3 of them, I bought them in the mid-seventies, new, and I use all 3! Makes switching the 75 / 300 ohm adapter to set's VHF Input so easy, also FM Tuner Ant. inputs as I switch to different sets.