[Azham] <AZHAM QUESTION>

[azham@mailman.qth.net]

Hi Rudy-

Don't know if this will be helpful or not. I have three
45 ft. utility poles used mainly to support HF wire
antennas and a 55 ft. tower with a 14-30MHz LP w/rotator.
I bought 4" conduit and buried a run to each holder-
upper and to posts between the poles for mid-span
feeders. Each run is buried about 2 ft. and comes to
the back wall of the shack/shop, then up the wall
with a sweep bend then a 45 degree angle bend thru the
wall (stucco-foam-insulation-wallboard). It is mortar 
plastered into the stucco outside and dry-wall plastered
on the inside. The space around the cables is packed
with glass wool so the conduits don't become scorpion
highways. Then lightning protectors on all the coax's
and rotor control cable. I also ground everything with
coax switches when a storm threatens. One pole has a 
Stationmaster VHF gain antenna, about 20 feet long,
making the top of that one the highest thing around.
It took a direct hit with no damage to anything.

Several years before, we took a direct hit to a kitchen
vent on the roof. No ham radio equipment damage, but the
burglar alarm door switches were all welded closed, 
all the semi-conductors in the burglar/fire control were
zapped, the FAX machine power supply blown, every GFI
was blown and destroyed, a UHF receiver front end 
zapped (not ham), and telephone set with memory 
destroyed. Fortunately, there was no fire.

True to the old story, after the horse was stolen
we locked the barn door. The very next week we
had lightning rods put on the house and surge protection
at the electrical service entrance, well head for the
submersible pump, 3 power distribution cabinets 
the telephone line (in addition to the phone company 
unit), and at the computer powere connection point.
This cost just about as much as the lightning damage, 
$5000. Moral of this story- do it now, before you
take a hit!

I don't think the mechanics of getting the feeders into
the house are your problem. Keep the critters (scorps
and snakes) out, ditto with the lightning.

By the way, in burying the 4" conduit, I ran a #4 bare
CU ground wire about 4" below each conduit. These go
to a bus bar close to the conduit entrance point and
all equipment grounds and coax lightning protector
grounds go to it. The house lightning rods have their
own grounds, CU plates, about 2 ft. square buried to
the top of the caliche, about 2 feet. DON'T connect
anything else to the lightning rod grounds!

Good luck. A little work now will save a lot of grief
later.

Guess it is obvious we live in unincorporated county
and don't have C.C.& R's to put up with.

73- Ken--
-----------------------------
Amateur Radio:   KD7KH 
U. S. Navy MARS: NNN�ETD
-----------------------------
Kenneth D. Hopper          
44410 North 20th Street
New River, AZ  85087-7522 USA
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phone:   1+623 465-5852
FAX:     1+623 465-9448
e-mail:  kd7kh@att.net		
         nnn0etd@navymars.org