How do you get your coax into your shack? I’ve got a window in my shack that I run coax through in a very messy way. #1 the window is not very secure #2 it looks amateurish. There must be a cleaner, neat way to feed the coax into the house. I’d love some of your ideas for inspiration.  Care to share your solutions to this? Pic’s would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance.

Feed-through panel.
This one was made by MFJ and they are closing down operations, but it'll give you an idea of what's available.

I have always drilled a series of holes to pass a 2 inch PVC pipe with a 45 degree sweep on the end. Drill up next to a stud so the "pipe" can be secured against the stud. INside is the square hole you cut to pass and dress the coax with the trim plate. Use one if the fancy trim plates with the opening pointing down for best looks. Coax goes in from the outside thru the sweep and thru the pipe to come out thru the dress plate on the inside. 2 inch is "mininum" if you expect more, use a 3 or a 4 inch. The number of coax runs only increase with time. What starts out as one or two, can be 10 or more in 20 years. Don't forget about control lines for rotors, tuners or ground wire.

I have always used "elephant manure" to seal the end of the sweep L fitting. Elephant manure is also known as Duct Seal. Think heating and air conditioning usage. The pipe is fastened to the stud with steel galvanized plumber tape and screws driven in at an angle from the trim plate cutout.

Relevant to my interests, first step is going through drywall in shack and through drywall into garage. Then I'll have to make my way through block to outside.
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There's likely a thousand ways to do this.  One  thing you should consider is grounding.  This means you need  some sort of plate or box  which you can mount connectors  or even  supressors on,   which will of course then bond the coax braids to whatever  you are using,  and then ground the box/ plate.  Use a big short  cable  to a ground stake,  and or  water pipe IF METAL,  or if your GROUNDED  tower is nearby, tie  the  connection  device to  the tower ground.

A lot depends on your foundation. If you have a crawl space or basement, it's pretty easy.

Slab, you're looking at window or drilling holes through exterior walls into living spaces.

At my last house (slab) I ran the cable through the window initially, and later ran it up a wall, into a soffit,
into the attic from there and then did a drop back down into an interior partition wall, far from the shortest
path.

My current place, I run four cables through one of the crawlspace vents (with additional 1/4" hardware
cloth to rodent-proof the entry) and then up into an interior partition where it terminates in a wall plate
with BNC connectors, then jumpers from the plate to the radios.

Cable installers typically drill through the exterior walls and use a bushing like this


to seal the coax in the hole if the walls are siding. If brick, rock etc will run to soffit, whether up a wall or down the roof and inside through the soffit.

@jharpphoto
One of the older guys used to recommend a dryer vent. It's big enough for several cables and a ground wire and looks good from the outside. I used a piece of the 2 inch gray 90 Deg. electrical conduit with an access cover on the outside and a 'tail' long enough to go through the wooden beam that sits on the concrete foundation. I stuff the conduit with yellow foam insulation after I run cables etc.
73,
Rob

I drilled a hole through the wall and ran a length of 1.5"(?) PVC pipe through it. Sealed around it outside with silicone.

On the outside wall, I mounted a utility box over the 1/2" or so of protruding pipe. https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dxe-ue-2p
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Inside the utility box is a metal plate. The shack ground wire comes through the pipe from the shack ground bus bar, and is attached to the metal plate. Mounting surfaces are slathered with Jet-Lube SS-30 Pure Copper Anti-Seize 12555 in order to stave off any dissimilar metal galvanic corrosion.

Also mounted on the utility box plate is a lightning arrestor that my antenna coax goes to, then a coax jumper through the pipe into the shack.

Also mounted on the utility box plate is a fat copper wire to an 8' ground rod driven into the ground nearby. This rod is daisy-chained with more fat copper wire to several other 8' ground rods leading to the electrical service entrance, where it is tied to the ground on the main panel. I followed "Best by far" here: https://www.w8ji.com/house_ground_layouts.htm

When it comes to sinking ground rods into the ground, do yourself a favor and rent a big impact hammer. Well worth the money.

My buddy got this one for his cabin.  MFJ Universal Window Feedthrough Panels MFJ-4602

He didn't like the wood board that came with it and replaced it with a vinyl board.  He's now $125+ into something that could be DIY for <$50.

I made my own wall pass through using long bulk heads and some galvanized sheet metal. I also added a piece of 1/4" 20 all thread for a grounding point. The most expensive parts were the bulk heads since I needed them to be at least 6" long to get through the wall.

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Bulkhead connectors are another option. They are available in differing lengths up to (I think) 18".

Lots of great suggestions here. Thanks for all the ideas.

KF7P if you have more money than time. Used him several times when I lived in FL and now in the Ham Radio Mecca of AZ............

https://www.kf7p.com/KF7P/EntrancePanels.html

TT

Wow, that’s a pretty slick solution. Thanks for sharing that link.