[TowerTalk] Station design resources

[John D. Peters]

Paul Walker wrote:
> 
> I am in the process of purchasing a piece of property and building a house.
>  Before I even get to constructing a tower - which was the whole point of
> buying land (my wife thinks it was to build a house), I am concerned mostly
> about a good station design.  The aforementioned wife has already
> determined the station will be located in the basement.
> 
> What resources are available for planning and laying out a station.
> Specifically:
> 
>         1)  What power requirements should you plan for.
>         2)  Constructing a good ground.
>         3)  Station egress for the coax.
>         4)  Managing the wiring octopus.
>         5)  Station proximity as it relates to electrical service location,
>             phone junction box and network wiring (yes, I'm a geek, I work with
>             networks and my house is going to have one)
>         6)  etcetera ....
> 
> I am sure there are many other things that I have not even considered.
> Anyway pointers to resources that may have this kind of information would
> be helpful.
> 
> Thanks much,
> 
> Paul, N9PW
> 
> --
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First, you should regain control.  Remind her that there are millions of 
women, only one DXCC. It's a lot easier to find a better wife than a 
better hobby!

The basement is a poor location for the station.  It's frequently damp 
which is not good for the equipment.

I have had good success with both a ground floor room (bed room or den) 
sharing a wall with the garage or a 2nd floor bedroom.  If you share a 
wall with the garage it's easy access to the power distribution system. 
If the house has a crawl space you have the choice of cable through the 
floor, crawl space, into PVC conduit to the tower.  Or through the wall, 
around the garage, to the PVC conduit to the tower. 

>From a 2nd floor bedroom, I ran conduit with the power lines against the 
back of the house, through the back wall, to carry the 240VAC to the 
linear and 120VAC to the rest of the station.  I ran the cables to the 
antenna up through the ceiling, across the attic, out a soffit vent, and 
strung from a steel cable like the power and telephone lines from tree to 
tree to the tower some 300 ft from the house. (Hardline has no loss, 
.1dB/100 ft at 1,000 MHx is no loss.)

Ground the antenna system to keep lightning outside (lots of discussion 
recently, I hope you read the posts.) Buy and read the PolyPhaser book on 
lightning protection.  Do NOT ground the station and provide a path to 
ground through the gear.  Connect the cabinets together so they are at a 
common potential.

Provide the station with it's own circuit breaker box. All single plase. 
240VAC 30 Amp, lots of 120VAC 20 Amp outlets.  Provide 120VAC 30 Amp to 
the hoist motor for your tower.

If you plan to bury the cables to the tower, bury PVC pipe, perhaps 4 
inch, bring the end up vertical to a 180 elbow.  So the wires go UP into 
the PVC, through it to the tower, and come out of the elbow going down so 
you keep water out of the buried PVC.  Keep a nylon line in the PVC, long 
enough so you can pull future cables, with the end of the line still 
accessible from both ends. Keep critters out with either hardware cloth 
or stuff something next to the cables at the ends of the PVC. Hire an 
electrician to run your power lines.

Egress for cables? Pull back a side of the rug, cut a hole in the floor, 
or cut a 3 x 3 inch hole in the ceiling, or through the wall (toward the 
garage). Mount a utility box over the hole in the wall.  For the ceiling 
hole, there are wall patches that make it invisible when you're done with 
the hole.  (Screen mesh with plaster in the center, glue on one side, 
that you stick of the hole, spackle and paint and no one knows a hole was 
ever there.)  I've built, bought, used, and sold LOTS of houses.  It's 
easy to remove all traces (except the 40,000 lb concrete tower base) when 
you're ready to sell.

The reason to buy or build a house is for YOU to enjoy Ham Radio. The 
wife can have a flower garden.  Never let her forget the priority!!! Tell 
her to get a license if she doesn't comprehend such a serious matter. If 
she threatens to leave, YOU get the lawyer and replace her with a better 
looking one that understands you better.  And don't let her forget that 
you're willing to do just that.

73 John K1ER (With licensed XYL and kids)

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