Will a ham radio antenna in attic cause problems?

[RUMBLESTRIP]

I am new here and beginning to order stuff for my first install. Will a high frequency transmitting antenna cause problems if it is mounted in my attic? Should I consider shielded cat cable, or just routing around the antenna as much as possible. I didn't find much in a search, but I did notice one amateur radio operator here.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I'd try to keep the cables as separated as possible. I know in an attic that can be problematic, but were talking, potentially, about a 1.5KW transmitter output being in very close proximity to data cables. The only way to know is by trying. You may experience problems on one band and not another, hard to tell depending on how "clean" the output of the transmitter is. Shielded CAT cable would help mitigate things and might save having to go back and pull out unshielded and install shielded.

 

[RUMBLESTRIP]

might save having to go back and pull out unshielded and install shielded.

This would be so painful!

I was thinking that shielded cat would be wise for the relatively low expense. Will a PoE switch actually ground them if I use shielded rj45's, or would the housing need its own ground? I have run a kilowatt before, but the high voltage made me a little uneasy. I'm pretty sure I will stick to the 100 watt radio for the attic dipole. I guess I just need to weed through amazon until I find some cat cable that doesn't look cheap and scammy.

 

[sebastiantombs]

You want 23 gauge solid copper, not CCA and not stranded, for the cable. I would say that if the PoE switch is specifically designed for shielded cable it will supply the ground. If not you need to ground those cables on one end only. The switch end will probably be easiest and should go directly to a known solid house ground.

 

[RUMBLESTRIP]

I just ordered this, and hopefully it's not junk

trueCABLE Cat6 Shielded Riser (CMR), 1000ft, Black, 23AWG Solid Bare Copper, 550MHz, PoE++ (4PPoE), ETL Listed, Overall Foil Shield (FTP), Bulk Ethernet Cable

https://a.co/d/3G0Z64L

I guess it's probably extremely common for people to show up on this forum wanting to run the cheapest cat5e on the planet lol.

 

[garycrist]

Throw some loops to create a "coaxial balun" to help keep stray current off the outer conductor.
AS an interesting note, during the solar maximum back in the late 80's and early 90's network failure rates were
high for all but Lantastic. The reason was stray currents killing the 10 MIP networks and not the 2MIP Lantastic.

 

[RUMBLESTRIP]

Throw some loops to create a "coaxial balun" to help keep stray current off the outer conductor.
AS an interesting note, during the solar maximum back in the late 80's and early 90's network failure rates were
high for all but Lantastic. The reason was stray currents killing the 10 MIP networks and not the 2MIP Lantastic.

I guess the RF won't hurt the signal or camera as long as the HF signals don't get into the computer. A few wraps around a mix 43 ferrite should do the trick if I have problems. I'm a little dense sometimes...

 

[tng5737]

You might want to read thru the ARRL RF exposure guidelines and also perform a station evaluation. That dipole isn't that far from your living space.

 

[RUMBLESTRIP]

You might want to read thru the ARRL RF exposure guidelines and also perform a station evaluation. That dipole isn't that far from your living space.

It's been a while, but I think it was 5 or 7 foot uncontrolled. It wasn't much to worry about whatever it was.

 

[tigerwillow1]

An opportunity to tell one of my favorite stories. In college I lived in a 4-unit apartment and ran SSB + a 2 KW amplifier, antenna on the roof. The building had knob and tube wiring. For a bunch of months before random conversion caught it, I learned the incandescent lamps in the apartment downstairs would glow on and off in cadence with my voice. The girls downstairs would be lying in bed with their ceiling light dimly going on and off. They were somewhat freaked.

 

[Mike A.]

When I lived in VA Beach near the air base there the AWACS or whatever they were would fly over. Sometimes you'd hear beeps through audio speakers that weren't even turned on.

 

[RUMBLESTRIP]

When I lived in VA Beach near the air base there the AWACS or whatever they were would fly over. Sometimes you'd hear beeps through audio speakers that weren't even turned on.

Years ago I had a 100 watt CB radio in my truck. My wife always knew when I was on the radio, yet I never saw her look outside. Finally she told me that she could hear me talking on our 12" subwoofer.

 

[looney2ns]

I just ordered this, and hopefully it's not junk

trueCABLE Cat6 Shielded Riser (CMR), 1000ft, Black, 23AWG Solid Bare Copper, 550MHz, PoE++ (4PPoE), ETL Listed, Overall Foil Shield (FTP), Bulk Ethernet Cable

https://a.co/d/3G0Z64L

I guess it's probably extremely common for people to show up on this forum wanting to run the cheapest cat5e on the planet lol.

I would purchase the rj45s from true cable that they recommend for that cable , could make your life much easier when crimping.

 

[RUMBLESTRIP]

I would purchase the rj45s from true cable that they recommend for that cable , could make your life much easier when crimping.

I suppose I could swing that. Will Klein crimpers work OK for the connector, then use the truecable ground crimper for the ground? Or should I just buy the truecable crimper that also has a ground crimper in it?

 

[sebastiantombs]

I'd go with the TrueCable crimper.

 

[Mike A.]

Coincidentally saw this in the news today...

It sounds like something out of an urban legend: Some Windows XP-era laptops using 5400 RPM spinning hard drives can allegedly be forced to crash when exposed to Janet Jackson's 1989 hit "Rhythm Nation."

But Microsoft Software Engineer Raymond Chen stands by the story in a blog post published earlier this week, and the vulnerability has been issued an official CVE ID by The Mitre Corporation, lending it more credibility.

According to Chen, CVE-2022-38392 was originally discovered by "a major computer manufacturer," and it can affect not just the laptop playing the song but adjacent laptops from other PC companies as well. The specific hard drive model at issue—again from an unnamed manufacturer—would crash because "Rhythm Nation" used some of the same "natural resonant frequencies" that the drives used, interfering with their operation.

Old laptop hard drives will allegedly crash when exposed to Janet Jackson music

Problem has been assigned an official CVE ID, despite lack of specifics.

arstechnica.com

 

[garycrist]

Get the Memorex tapes out...

 

[RUMBLESTRIP]

That is funny, but I thought I was the only one who still had an xp based laptop.

 

[CCTVCam]

I had a set a while ago and it used to interefere with next doors tv which is why I stopped using it.

Best try shielded cable and if that fails you might need to look at using chokes on the cable to supress the rf.

A lot of the question as to whether you get interference will depend on the frequency of the transmitter and also maybe the length of the cable. All I can advise is buy the best shielded cable you can, keep it as far from the dipole as possible and the same with the NVR / PC. If the worst happens, start to look into chokes.