On 8/12/2013 9:22 AM, Greg wrote:
I am building a new shack. It is 12x16 to stay under the limit
needing a permit and is on skids supported on pier blocks, so there is
room to maneuver under the floor.
First consider layout. There is great benefit to holding the operating
desk away from the wall enough that you can walk behind it to make
connections to the gear. When I set up my shack here in CA, it was
shared space with my office, with desks on three sides, all against
walls, with space for cables behind the desks. Having operated from
stations where the desks have that space behind the gear, I would
definitely use that arrangement if I were doing it again.
Looking for input on pros and cons for running the conduit to the
external antenna switch up the exterior wall and thru the wall or
bring it up under the floor and cut an access hole for the PVC tucked
away in the corner and seal it with spray foam. I eventually plan to
spray foam the entire floor from underneath for insulation.
I would try to make the antenna switching, and connections between it
and the radio, as flexible as possible, so that you can reconfigure it
for SO2R or M/2, or for different contests, and to accommodate more or
different antennas. N6RO has his antenna switching set up so that for
160M contests, he can bring all of his antennas to the 160M operating
position for use as RX antennas. The easier it is to do all of those
things, the happier you will be.
Also, aim for a layout that accommodates good bonding of grounds. My
shack is on the opposite side of the building (a garage with a
"mother-in-law" apartment) from the breaker panel. I ran all the new
power in EMT, but the route isn't very short because the floor is on
slab and there are doors in the way, so I ran a perimeter ground ring
around the building with rods by the panel, at intermediate points
around the perimeter, and by the shack. Better to have power distro (and
grounding of power distro) electrically closer to the operating desk if
possible. My antenna switching is under the operating desk, and the
feeds to it come from a big copper entry panel in the wall right beneath
the desk. That panel is bonded to the rods outside, to the conduit under
the desk, and to the gear on the desk.
If power to this building comes from another building, you have two
choices per NEC. The one I chose was to NOT carry ground between
buildings (about 40 ft apart), only the two legs of 240V and neutral.
This allowed me to bond neutral to ground in the second building. The
alternative is to CARRY ground between the buildings, but neutral must
NOT be bonded in the second building. Either way, both buildings need
ground electrodes (rods, Ufers, etc), and neutral must be bonded to
ground at the service entrance.
Another suggestion. If you didn't wire your home yourself (and even if
you did), don't assume that the existing wiring is done right. Mine was
a holy terror, lots of mistakes, both small and large.
73, Jim K9YC
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