[Alinco] EDX-2 Questions

[John Amdor III]

I recently picked up an EDX-2 autotuner to go with my DX70TH.

I'm debating installation options.  One option is to mount the box near
the ground on the wood fence next to my shack...shorter run to the
ground rod and radials, but puts the output connector where people and
animals can come in contact with it and the radiator.  (Side
question...would running the output thru a short piece of RG213, feeding
the center conductor and using it to feed the longwire above the 'danger
zone', grounding the shield at the tuner end and leaving the upper end
of the shield unterminated work to protect people, animals, and the
antenna, or am I asking for other problems?)

The other option is to mount the tuner on the roof of the house, near
the end of the longwire...shorter run from the tuner to the wire,
protected from kids and other small animals, but quite a bit above the
ground connection and radials.  If I choose this mounting location,
would using flat copper strap (_not_ braid) be better for the run from
the tuner to the ground rod/radials than regular solid copper wire?

In either case, I will have to extend the control cable.  I've got quite
a bit of CAT5 network cable...if I treat each twisted pair as a single
conductor, will it be heavy enough to carry the control currents, or
should I look for some larger 4-conductor wire?

TIA

John K0MXL