Re: [IRCA] DKAZ Questions

["Michael Yule" <michaeldyule@xxxxxxxxx>]

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

 

 

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