Ham Attic Antenna Safety

If you are mounting the antenna in your attic you d need about 7 10 feet of space between the antenna and the occupants in the house.

Ham attic antenna safety.

On vhf a beam antenna can work well in the attic even a rotator can be used. Radio frequency exposure is usually not a significant hazard for most amateur radio stations. Bare copper antenna wire stapled directly on wood rafters causes loss of rf signal energy. Again stay away from metal and wires to maintain your pattern.

Just don t touch it. With time bare copper oxidizes the wood where the wire is tightly stapled to absorbs some of this oxidization and forms a loose yet lossy bond with the wire. Falling through the roof is a much more likely scenario. Yes in the attic.

Radiation pattern of the antenna d. A second advantage to mounting the antenna in the attic is that you will be protected from lightning strikes in the event of severe weather. Safety and rf exposure are important topics to consider. On hf wire beams can be run on the roof supports or the rafters these usually are good for one direction only but can be switched electrically for different coverage.

What factors affect the rf exposure of people near an amateur station antenna. This is great for the amateur radio operator that is providing net control activities during a skywarn severe weather activation. It s perfectly safe up in that range of power. I know because i live in florida in a community and i have added this amateur radio to my storm preparations but i was planning to do an illegal operation without a license.

But even if you can t put up an outdoor antenna you can still operate with antennas installed in an accessible attic space. The attic shortwave antenna wire this is the most importantaspect to improve. Frequency and power level of the rf field b. What uni you go to.

Distance from the antenna to a person c. The house will act as a natural shield and as long as your attic mounted antenna system is independent to the rest of your antennas lightning won t be an issue. Many hams including many of you reading this are limited by hoa or other outdoor antenna restrictions. It is theoretically possible to create a fire in the attic from your ham radio antenna but the conditions required for that to work require purpose and luck making this not a realistic concern for the typical attic farmer.

All of these choices are correct.