Buiding new house

[ScanWV]

My wife and I are looking into building a new house soon. I would like to hear ideas, comments, suggestions, or advice on where in our new home I should have my station. Anything I would need to think of that I will probably want. Any thoughts appreciated, thanks.

 

[CommJunkie]

Speakers with volume controls throughout the house hooked up to one scanner in a closet somewhere.

 

[kb0nly]

Wherever you plan on putting the shack remember this, power, ethernet, phone, etc etc...

Pre-run everything in the walls!! And since your starting fresh have them run network cable to all the rooms of the house to plan for future needs and have a panel in the basement where it all terminates, pretty standard now days for new construction to plan for these needs. Also cable tv runs, phone line runs, etc etc.. And speaker wiring in the family room or even a dedicated media room, get all that stuff in the walls even if you don't need it right away!

Going back to the shack specifically, think power. I ran two dedicated 110v 20a circuits to the shack, and i still might have to run a 220v line in there for future use. It's nice to have lots of outlets without a bunch of power strips and such. I have three two gang boxes under the operating position alone, thats 12 places to plug in!

 

[avguy]

Make sure to have fiber run along with the Cat5 and coax.

 

[Giant420]

Make sure to have fiber run along with the Cat5 and coax.

What purpose would running fiber inside of his house have? Not only would that be expensive, but he is never going to need that.. And you probably want to go with Cat6 cable over Cat5, its not much more expensive and is pretty much the standard now..

Realistically you want to think of everything you can possibly need in every room, and not too much more.. When my house was being built, I had 2 ethernet jacks put in every room, a phone line, coax, and wiring for alarms and intercoms. Dont forget to carefully plan your outlet placement. You can never have too many.. :lol: The intercom wiring was one of the best ideas ever.

 

[N_Jay]

Home run 2X cat 6 from 2 places in each room (wives like to rearrange furniture) to where you data equipment will be.
Home run 1X RG-6 from all the same locations.
Double runs from behind any likely entertainment center or Computer desk locations.
2 to 3 inch conduit run from the basement to the attic.
Tall enough Attic to hide antennas, and a good way to get coax runs from the attic out to the roof.
Put your listening room on an upper floor with easy attic access.
Pre-run a heavy ground from the attic and from your listening room.

 

[avguy]

What purpose would running fiber inside of his house have? Not only would that be expensive, but he is never going to need that..

Are you some sort of wizard that can see the future?

Around here both the cable and phone companies are running fiber to every house within 2 years.

What's the advantage of an unnecessary fiber to copper conversion at the demarcation point?

 

[N_Jay]

Are you some sort of wizard that can see the future?

Around here both the cable and phone companies are running fiber to every house within 2 years.

Are you?

Maybe for new construction, but it is a long time before the existing network get s rebuilt with fiber.

What's the advantage of an unnecessary fiber to copper conversion at the demarcation point?

Nobody offers the option of running fiber after the gateway.

 

[Giant420]

Are you some sort of wizard that can see the future?

Around here both the cable and phone companies are running fiber to every house within 2 years.

What's the advantage of an unnecessary fiber to copper conversion at the demarcation point?

:lol: Yes, they do run fiber to your house.. But then they stick it into a box that says VERIZON on the front of it, and has a bunch of ethernet ports on the back of it. Fiber will never be practical for home use because of how fragile it is.. Trust me man, I do this for a living. I actually do have fiber in my house, but it goes from my disk storage subsystem to my server chassis. Thats it.. There is absolutely no reason to run it from room to room.

And in any case, if in the distant future fiber did become the norm, it wouldnt be the same 2GB capable cables you would be buying now. You would have to buy cable that is capable of supporting whatever speed is current at the time. Not to mention the fact that the connectors would probably change.

 

[N4DES]

Don't forget about the ability to have back-up power. This can be a battery bank for just the radios themselves or a generator that can run the whole house.

If you have a big enough lot you can put a permanent gen set on a slab or have the electrician install a manual transfer switch and 3 phase 220V plug for a portable unit. I did the manual switch and 3 phase plug after hurricane Jeanne and it was the best move I ever made cause when Wilma showed up a year later my house was the only one with lights and hot water on the block.

 

[kennyblues]

Something I would consider when planning a house and a shack would be to locate the shack as far away as possible from the neighborhood power lines.

 

[trace1]

Put your listening room on an upper floor with easy attic access.

My choice would be in the basement, if available, for those times during severe weather monitoring where it might just be a safer place to be...

But what about lightening, power outages and such?

Certainly would go with the idea of indoor/attic antennas but also have outside antennas if there are no restrictions on that.

Battery or generator back-up power would be a must. Not only for your radio room but for other important appliances and devices as well.

 

[kb0nly]

Yep, all good ideas, and backup power is a good one too. I have battery backup for all the radio gear, and a portable generator out in the garden shed with a transfer switch in the house to run off it if i need too. I'm also about the only one around with lights when the power goes out, pretty satisfying i must say!

I also second having the shack in the basement. I used to have mine up on the first floor, whenever really bad weather rolled through and i had to take cover with the kids in the basement it was a pain to keep them occupied and safe at the same time. Now i have my shack in the basement, if bad weather approaches we just go hide in "dad's room" and watch some tv.

 

[SCPD]

All good suggestions.
My first priority, if it was me, would to be to have my shack in the area of the house that is the shortest run to a good ground. Everything else is secondary if you ask me.

 

[kb0nly]

All good suggestions.
My first priority, if it was me, would to be to have my shack in the area of the house that is the shortest run to a good ground. Everything else is secondary if you ask me.

Speaking of which... If your going to put the shack in the basement someone put in a couple ground rods in the area of the shack before pouring the basement floor, otherwise your going to be in for some extra work later! I drilled holes through the slab and then drove a ground rod through that.

 

[N_Jay]

All good suggestions.
My first priority, if it was me, would to be to have my shack in the area of the house that is the shortest run to a good ground. Everything else is secondary if you ask me.

What about the run to the antenna?

If you are interested in HF, I would go with the ground.
If you are interested in UHF, I would go with the shorter antenna run.

 

[E-Man]

Pre-run a heavy ground from the attic and from your listening room.

What purpose would this serve?

 

[N_Jay]

What purpose would this serve?

Allowing you to properly ground both the antenna system and mounts and your equipment.

 

[E-Man]

I didnt think it was necessary to ground antennas that are in the attic for RX purposes? (no idea on TX)

Of course having everything bonded and at the same potential could not hurt for protection. And needing a ground in the attic after the fact could be a major pita.

All my Antenna's to date are in the attic and none are grounded.

LOL I just remembered now my PAR SW-EF which is in the attic calls for a ground.

Ok, good idea to run that ground in the attic.

Edit: I think the recommended ground for the PAR was one that is isolated from the utility's.

 

[ScanWV]

Good ideas so far. I think the plan so far is to put my station in the basement, well at least thats where my wife wants to put it. If putting the antennas outside how would I access them into the house? Bear with me as im new to ham radio and never built a house before.