[TenTec] Making a new house "radio friendly"

[Carl Moreschi]

Mark,

I put my tower about 250 feet from the house.  This means most of the
noise generated from the house is greatly reduced.  I have almost no
computer noise or TV receiver noise.

Getting the antennas away from the house helps a lot.  I have a 250 foot
hard-line run from the house to the tower.  I got this hard-line from the
local
cable company.  It was a scrap piece to them.  I buried it along with
rotor control cable, and a 22 wire control cable for miscellaneous
functions.
I relay switch all my antennas with a switch from the shack.  All this works
great.  I wish I had run 120v out to the tower for soldering out there.  I
used
a ditchwitch to bury the cable.

Carl Moreschi N4PY
cjm@qvssoftware.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Erbaugh" <mark@microenh.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 10:26 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Making a new house "radio friendly"


>
> Greetings,
>
> My wife and I are having a new house built. I'm looking for suggestions
for
> things that I can do (or have done) during construction to help with
setting
> up my ham station at the new house. We have almost 4 acres and I am
looking
> forward to having a real 'antenna farm.'  I think I've decided on the
tower
> / (initial) antenna setup. I want to use a Glenn Martin 70' tower with
Hazer
> as I want to be able to work on the antenna with both feet firmly planted
on
> terra firma. I plan on using a Force 12 5BA for 20 - 10 m. I currently
have
> a Force 12 C4S and really like the construction and performance. I'm not
> sure about 40 - currently the C4S has a rotatable diope element, I would
> loose that with the 5BA. For 80 and 160, I'm thinking a trapped dipole
> installed as an inverted vee from the tower.  I've got enough real estate
> for a full length 160 antenna.
>
> The areas I'm looking for ideas with are grounding and getting the cables
/
> wires from the house to the antenna. The shack will definitely be in the
> basement.  I and considering burying some ground rods under the basement
> floor before the floor is poured. That way, I would have an extremely
short
> RF ground (which is good, right?). However, I don't know if that is a good
> idea. I'm wondering why the electric service is always grounded outside
the
> house instead of through the basement floor.  Also, this house will have a
> septic system an leach field, which I understand will consist of about
2000'
> feet of buried plastic pipe. I'm considering burying some wire for ground
or
> counter poise radials purposes along with the pipe. I'm not sure which.
I'm
> currently not contemplating a vertical antenna, but I hate to pass up the
> opportunity to get some wire in the ground. If I use the leach field as a
> counterpoise, I would probably want to bury insulated wire, but if I use
it
> as a ground, I'd want uninsulated wire. If I bury either insulated or
> uninsulated, I can envision that the copper will be in a pretty nasty
> environment (moisture, salts and bacteria), are there steps that I can
take
> to keep it from corroding away?
>
> What's the best way to get signals in and out of the house and leave me
room
> for expansion. I am looking forward to playing with different antennas and
> hope to make it easy to run new wires, etc. The basement walls will be
> poured concrete. I'm thinking of having them embedd some PVC pipe during
the
> pour to serve as sleeves for smaller diameter pipe and conduit which will
> eventually be run to the base of the tower.  Not wanting overkill, but
> wanting room for expansion, what size pipe should I use? I plan on using
an
> antenna switch at the tower; which will reduce the number of coax runs.  I
> know it's not a good idea to run electrical service in the same pipe as my
> coax, so I will bury a conduit for that.  I don't think I 'need' 120V at
the
> tower, but I think it would be nice to have - especially for powering
tools
> when working at the tower.  What about control lines for my rotator and
> antenna switch? I suspect that these will be 12 or 24 VDC. Can these be
> safely run in the pipe with the coax or in the conduit with the 120V? Or
do
> I need a separate conduit for them.
>
> Also, should I run the coax / eletrical underground all the way to the
> basement from the tower, or should I bring it above ground near the house
> and then go back underground?
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions and 73,
> Mark, N8ME
>
>
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