RF cables for the Atari

[+johnnywc]

To all:

 

I have 4 Junior systems that do not have RF cables or power adapters, making them somewhat useless. I read the post with the link for purchasing the adapters pretty cheap (thanks!) but I'm looking for a solution for the RF cable. I went to Radio Shack and the guy was trying to sell me a shielded RF cable for 25 bucks and said that was all that would work. Does anybody have any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[Thelen]

if you can solder you can take a tv coax cable and solder a CINCH on it for pluggin in the atari and a tv plug on the other end for in the tv, this won't be so expensive

 

TheleN

[moppet]

For the atari jr?

 

Unless I missed something, you just need speaker wire with an rca male at both ends.

 

$1.99 at radio shack

 

Then get the rca female to coaxial male adapter (also $1.99) and you are set.

 

Other than the power cord, that's all you need to connect.

[+johnnywc]

Does the speaker wire need to be "shielded"? The guy at radio shack said the original cables that shipped with the Atari were shielded because of the RF interference. Does anybody know if this is true?

 

Thanks again!

[Paul Slocum]

You need a quality shielded RCA cable. I just tried mine with a very high quality line level audio cable and it worked fine. Maybe try one of their RCA cables designed for video (I'm not sure if their audio cables are shielded well enough.)

 

-Paul

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I pretty much just use whatever I can get Audio RCA or Video RCA and use that...I have used Gold plated and heavy shielded and all types in between...and I have seen pretty much zero difference in clarity of the image. I find that what causes most of my interference and snow patterns it simply having the game unit too close to electrical adapters that are plugged in..etc.

 

Get a decent length of Video RCA and it will suffice just fine.

[jsoper]

Heck I use audio rca cables for S-video signals no problem.

 

Fairly sure all that shielded talk is a bunch of baloney. We studied coaxial cables in my electromagnetism class and they work so well because when an AC signal propagates down the center conductor, an equal and opposite current comes back up the surrounding ground sheath. They cancel, so the overall current is 0 which means it won't interact with any external electric fields.

 

In that sense, audio rca cable should be just as good as video. The only possible problem is some audio cables are very poorly made. I stripped some once and only found a few strands of wire inside. Video cable is thicker and can supply more current. Remember audio devices have a very high input resistance (little current needed) but video inputs are 75 ohms.

 

As one poster noted, the best thing you could probably do is to use an RCA to Coax adapter. Try the cheap stuff first, then get the better cables if needed.