Out of the house!

[k7mdo]

My wife is wanting her "walk in closet" back..... unfortunately it is my radio room. Her solution is that I retreat to the barn.  Much more room, she says.

The most serious issue is the mercury outdoor light... when on it raises havoc with 160 and 80 meter bands.

I went to the local hardware store to find a replacement and saw that the new ones are a sodium based lamp.  Does anyone have experience with them?  Noise levels?

My other solution is to add a switch to turn it off when on the air and maybe the best but still wonder about the new breed of lamps.

Tom

[W7TFO]

Sodium lamps aren't any newer than MV's, just the darling of the 'dark skies' initiative crowd due to the sprectrum emitted.

Either one my be RF noisy, as both are arc lamps.

If it is that important, look to using an LED subsitute or even a plain old incandescent.

73DG

[N8CMQ]

Incandescent gets my vote, as I don't like providing light for the criminals,
I never leave a light on.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

If you need light, use a real light bulb or a bunch of them.

[k7mdo]

Haven't yet seen an LED for that application... sounds like a good substitute idea... tnx, Tom

[N4RMT]

Be leery of the new LED street lamp bulbs.  The power supplies in a lot of them are extremely noisy.

[w5rkl]

My shack is a separate 10 x 20 finished building, 80 feet from the house, in the back yard. I have 2 dual tube florescent lights, one mounted in the center of the ceiling and one hanging over the bench. Nether light produces any noise and they provide plenty of light.

73
Mike W5RKL

[VE3AJM]

We just had the street light and fixture/arm assembly changed out here from a sodium bulb and fixture to a new LED unit and fixture. We rent the units from the electrical utility. Its at the top of our 1200 ft laneway.  

Looking up at it, there are 5 LED bulbs on the unit. It looks like a LED module. I've checked it out for noise and its quiet on all the HF bands. I would say that we get about 30% more light and use less electricity from this unit which is a bonus. The original sodium unit was quiet as well. That's what we had here for 18yrs.

Has your light always been noisy or has it just cropped up recently? Sometimes its not the lamp/light itself making the noise. The light sensor can fail and there are components up inside the arm cover. ie. a capacitor, a rectifier and a step-down transformer etc.

Switching your light off when you are operating will work great of course.

Al VE3AJM

[W3RSW]

You'll come to a point in your lives when there are events much more important than getting back a walk in closet for a jillion outfits.  Buy her a new car or anything! To save your radio room.  . A happy ham is a pampered ham.

[Opcom]

If you insulate the barn you won't hear when she stands at the back door and hollers for you to do some chore. Something about noise being reduced by the square root of the distance or something. Sorry, cellphone does not work in the metal barn.. 

Add on another closet in a location inconvenient to the wifey and equip with its own 1 ton ac window unit. If you build it near the plumbing and the breaker panel you can have 240V and your own fortress of solitude as well.

[k7mdo]

Not to worry, I am good with the barn. There is a toilet, shower, and sink along with my lathe and mill! 208 and all.

It will require I feed my long wire from the opposite end but that is OK. Also I will get down to ground level... the closet was 2nd floor and posed some problems.

Will build a 12 by 12 foot interior shack adjacent to the machine shop, mostly as a "clean room" ..... inside the main building....  it is just the moving and the construction that seems to never cease!  Seems like most of my ham radio time gets spent getting ready go on the air....  and then the sunspots will decline before I am ready!

Still look forward to each project so I can't complain.

Tom

[w1vtp]

Actually Tom,  Sounds like you have the potential of a great place of Solitude. Keep us up to date on your progress.  Pictures  please!

GL: Al

[k7mdo]

OK, yes, I am looking forward to some more room.... shack is beyond crowded....  the attached pictures are of the current situation and show some of the packing I am doing plus the "surrounds"....  Tom

[k7mdo]

A couple more pictures....  Tom

[KB5MD]

I used to have my shack in an unused bedroom in the house.  I started collecting heavy iron for AM and things got out of hand.  I came in one afternoon to find that the wall
had separated from the ceiling by about 1 inch, too much heavy iron.  So now, the shack is in another building in the back yard with a concrete slab and the rest is history.

[N2DTS]

I can help you empty those boxes of parts!

Nice TX/modulator!

[Steve - K4HX]

You need more room. Good to see the Eico combo! And thanks for covering the slopbucket rig in the photos.   

[W3RSW]

Hey Tom, nice paneling in that room.  If it's cedar I can see why she wants you out of there. Some very plush houses back in the day had lead lined and cedar interior closets to keep out the moths along with adding a pleasing odor to the clothes.

[k7mdo]

I was out in the barn today determining the routing of the antenna wires.... possible wall penetrations.  I have a 206 foot long wire currently terminated at the upstairs shack and tuned with an Icom AH-4.  If I cut loose the current terminal end and then go out to the cherry tree and add more or less an "L" over to the new location it will create an odd shape but time will tell how it tunes on the bands.  No way to estimate it yet. (least of the issues so far)  I have intentions of using a large porcelain through the wall fitting terminating inside the wall with the AH-4 indoors and the outside wire the only bare wire.  Then will prune it at the distal end near the house as required.  The length has always done really well on 80-10 meters but never on 160....  I don't know yet where I will dangle the 1/4 wave counterpoise wires but they are insulated and hopefully won't be affected by running around the metal siding of the barn.  All in all I getting pretty excited about the possibilities for this move and in some ways wish I had been evicted sooner.  

I forgot to add a picture of the "shack cat" (Dumpster).... he is stone deaf so is a joy around power equipment, not put off by even the loudest sounds.  Half Siamese so he howls like you can't believe but only at meal times.

73, Tom