[TowerTalk] Coax entry panel -- inside or outside?

Rich Assarabowski konecc at snet.net
Fri Jun 28 21:13:23 EDT 2019


This is an age-old topic but maybe someone can offer some advice.   I'm
starting to redo my basement which will also have the new shack.   In my
previous station, I had replaced one of the basement single-pane glass
windows with a piece of aluminum and had a bunch of feedthroughs for the
coax.   It was grounded to the outside ground system by a short piece of
heavy copper cable.   I never liked that solution as the connectors outside
were exposed to the weather and there was no provision for any Polyphasers.

 

I'm looking at the KF7P entrance panel boxes (see
http://www.kf7p.com/KF7P/EntrancePanels.html) which are an elegant way to
bring in coax.   I've got a new spot identified where I could mount such a
box.   It would be directly outside the shack on an outside wall, close to
ground level.

 

However, there's another option which is more appealing to me.   It would be
to mount a big aluminum plate (or copper-sheet clad plywood) in the same
location except it would be inside the house, rather than outside in an
enclosure.   The coax would come into the house directly to the plate, with
Polyphasers and all the other antenna switching and filtering mounted on
that plate on the 2x4 wall, just above the foundation.   That would
eliminate the need for the big outside steel box and would have everything
at the single-point grounding location.   There would be a short ground
connection from the plate back outside to a ground rod, which is part of the
perimeter ground rod system and is also tied to the utility ground.   

 

Any issues with doing it this way?  

 

--- Rich K1CC



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