RadioBanter - View Single Post - best material for turning a closet into a Faraday cage

October 19th 05, 05:28 PM

wrote:
All,

I have the opportunity to turn a walk-in closet with door into a ham
station. I'm thinking of turning the closet into a Faraday cage to
help in reducing common-mode QRM. To this this, I will need to line
the entire inside of the closet, including the door, with some type of
metal, and then connect that metal to my ground system.

Question is this: what type of metal would provide acceptable results:
aluminum foil, copper foil, or tin-plated zinc sheets nailed
overlapping along the closet inside?

Thanks in advance,

The Eternal Squire

Just as important as the conductivity and thickness of the shield is
the continuity. Nonconducting seams can act as slot antennas. So
aluminum, though it is a very good conductor, is very difficult to
seam in a conductive way. Well connected, galvanized chicken wire
(with 1 inch or so holes) may work as well as aluminum foil that has
non conductive seams, as long as the holes are much smaller than the
shortest wavelengths you are trying to shield.