[TowerTalk] How far away from the shack for that mighty fine tower

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

For lightening, I'd rather have it close.  I'd want the distance for 
wind. The tower is really a big lightening rod.  The first few years it 
was up it took 3 verified hits per summer.  Undoubtedly it took more 
than the ones that were seen.  17 verified direct strikes in 6 years 
with no damage to anything in the house after the ground system was 
finished. No strikes since then. The rigs and computers ran most of the 
time.

Unfortunately I installed a CAT5, gigabit network with three 
approximately 130' ft runs between the switch in the basement and shop.  
Telephone and cable hooked into that as well.  Summer before last a 
nearby strike induced some bad voltages into the network.  I'm still 
having parts fail in computers from that.

73

Roger (K8RI)



On 1/9/2016 Saturday 10:57 PM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> Once again I agree with K4XS. From a lightning and RFI standpoint it is nice
> to have a little distance between your house and the tower. Both of my
> towers are 250' from the shack.
>
> John KK9A
>
>
> To:	TOWERTALK at contesting.com
> Subject:	[TowerTalk] How far away from the shack for that mighty fine
> tower	:-]
> From:	Bill via TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Reply-to:	Cqtestk4xs at aol.com
> Date:	Sat, 9 Jan 2016 05:53:49 -0500
>
> 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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>
>
>
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-- 

73

Roger (K8RI)


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