UHF / SO-239 Barrel insulating mount

thingiverse

Ham Radio Operators may appreciate this: This is a very simple print which I designed to accommodate a UHF/SO-239 barrel passing through the wall of my metal trailer. The challenge arose because the trailer contains numerous electronics, some of which are noisy (notably the solar charge controller). When the barrel made contact with the trailer's skin, it introduced an enormous amount of RF noise into the signal, necessitating a solution to isolate the barrel from the skin without compromising the antenna's performance. I discovered that using a coax through the window did not pick up any noise at all; the barrel is essentially a short length of oddly designed coax. The pictures should make the mechanism clear; you may need to adjust the diameter for your printer to achieve a secure fit. I prefer having it tight enough that threading is required, but I didn't aim for an excessively tight seal since that would have made it too difficult to work with. You can easily modify the variables in the scad file to suit your needs. If someone finds this design useful, I could convert it into a customizer tool. Print Settings Notes: The primary consideration is ensuring the shell remains solid; it's 2mm thick, so be cautious not to introduce infill, as that would likely lead to subpar results.