Re: [IRCA] DKAZ Questions

[Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>]

I think your wife and mine would be friends quickly. When I had my ham yagi
up on the roof I also had to paint the coax to match the shingles -- and
even the ground wire for the mast !

Russ Edmunds
15 mi NW Phila
Grid FN20id
<wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>

AM: Modified Sony ICF2010's (4) barefoot w/whip
FM: Yamaha T-80 & T-85, each w/ Conrad RDS Decoder;
Onkyo T-450RDS; Tecsun PL-310 ( 4);
modified Sony ICF2010's (3) w/APS9B @ 15';
modified Sony ICF2010 w/whip


On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 2:50 PM, Michael Yule <michaeldyule@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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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