AS many of you will know, I just put up a DKAZ about a month or so ago pointing east. I'm in a bit of an enviable RF situation here, at 5kHz my noise floor is about -125 - the closest AM station is 1kW 100 km from here and I have only a 32kW ERP FM anywhere nearby (about 10 km). I'm on an acre or so, with neighbours about 100 feet away on pne side and 200 feet on the other. The only real noise I get from the DKAZ is one of my neighbour's has an electric fence, but the NB on the ELAD takes care of that. However with an ALA within 50 feet of the power pole outside the house the noise floor is considerably higher.
I went the FLG in-the-house/CAT5/9:1 transformer that Mark suggested/Colin VACTROL route and I'm very happy with the results, although I did use banana plugs so we'll see how happy I am when there's 2 feet of snow on the ground. I sealed them with rubber tape covered with electrical tape and a bit of coax seal. The transformer is in a small plastic hobby box with the seams sealed with electrical tape. I also tied all the unused pairs on the CAT5 together and grounded them at the antenna end (but not at the shack end). I think that the directionality of the DKAZ helps a lot if it's pointed away from the nearest noise sources, and it has been my experience that the twisted pair outdoor CAT5 with the transformer is not a noisy solution at all. I was able to run the feed at right angles to the antenna for about 50 feet before bringing it back to the house. Total length is about 400 feet. As far as getting the feeds into the house I didn't want to drill any holes in the exterior walls, and I don't have much of an overhang on the roof (the shack is on the second floor in what is supposed to be a bedroom) and bringing it in at ground level is a non-starter as well because in a 130 year old house there's no way to feed it up through the wall into the shack. So I had the hardware store cut my a piece of 1/4" Lexan 6" high and the width of my window (they open up and down) and drilled a couple of holes for the CAT5 to pass through. I have a BNC bulkhead mount for the ALA and an N bulkhead for an FM antenna as well. Seems to work fine and doesn't let in any noticeable drafts (I have sealed the bottom and top with a chink of leftover door weatherstripping I had laying around. My wife likes this solution because the Lexan looks just like window glass, and after she made me paint all the cables the same colour as the siding it's hard to tell on cursory inspection that there are cables there at all. Anyway, as was noted in another post this is a great group for people helping each other out, and I certainly benefitted from the accumulated knowledge. Good luck on getting your DKAZ going Mark! Regards, Michael _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
