I've put it all back together now and won't open it again until I fix it one way or another. When I say it's not a coax, I mean that the connector does not look like a TV antenna connector, I'm sure that it is shielded, but the cable is thinner than a TV cable. I could not find an exact Google match image but this is fairly close
Imageexcept the main body is plastic with a slot on each side with a metal compression fitting . The central 'peg' is about the size of an RCA phono plug. Anything I could add to the connection to make it a better contact?