Having built a few big stations here are my thoughts.
I have always like to have the towers away from the house a bit for safety
reasons. Living in the lightning capitol of the northern hemisphere the
thought of a huge attractive spot for lightning to hit (and it does) I
preferred to keep it away from the house as much as practical. Second, living
in
FL the there is a real threat of a hurricane. I would prefer that if the
tower does come down it will be far enough from my house as to not cause it
damage when it falls.
Also, the further the tower is from the house the less chance of RF
interference to household devices and from them to your antennas.
Another factor to take into account is the burying of the cable. If you
don't bury it, no big deal. However, running 300 feet of cable under ground
can be a little expensive and pretty time consuming since you have to put
it in some sort of conduit.
That being said it certainly is cheaper to have it close to the house.
Depending on what bands you use extra distance can be a problem. Once you
get beyond a 100 feet or so, you'll have to beef up the rotor cable, which
can be expensive. Go beyond 250 or 300 feet and signal loss can be a problem
unless you go to hardline. Obviously I'm referring to the higher freqs
like 10 meters. Other wiring such as to switch boxes must also be increased
in length and possibly in size.
To take care of the increase cost I've always been able to scrounge up
cheap 7/8 or larger hardline. For the extra sized rotor cable I've always
used 14/2 house wiring.
All things considered, including aesthetics, my choice would be to keep
the tower a minimum of the tower's height from the house.
Bill K4XS/KH7XS
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