Okay, trick question. Of course I'm crazy. :-)
But seriously... I've been thinking of antennas that would work (or at
least tune reasonably) on 80 and 160 meters that wouldn't require taking
over my neighbors' yards (small city plot) and would be acceptable to the
antenna restrictions of my non-ham partner. And I like to experiment.
So I was thinking, could I pull off using my house wiring (possibly up
to the pole pig) as a very random long wire antenna, using a high pass
filter network to isolate the 60Hz power but let the 1.8MHz+ signal pass?
Some parameters and things I've considered:
Max TX power would be 100W. Of course I'd start QRP and ramp up.
I'd build a T network filter (2 caps and 1 inductor) with a rolloff
frequency around 1MHz.
Some of the house wiring is in conduit or MC cable, which of course would
shield the signal in those areas.
I share a pole transformer with at least 3 other houses.
I've worked with 120 before, and respect it's great power (pun intended).
I did see a thread a while ago that mentioned a carrier current system in
a dorm environment, though that seemed to aim to keep ERP to a minimum,
IIRC.
Questions:
What voltage rating should I be using for the caps? I'd figure at least
500V, but would I need more for the RF?
Should I expect appliances and electronics in the house to blow up (or
otherwise be damaged) by upward of 100W coming down the power lines?
Would it be effective only as a TX antenna? i.e. would RX noise be too
great even with the filter network?
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. It would be neat to have
a working antenna (however well it might work) that was completely
concealed, even if I end up using my 40M dipole as an RX antenna. It
would also save on buying antenna wire.
Thanks in advance, and glad to see Usenet still alive after all these
years (was first on in 1991).
~~Anya, KC2ZAK, FN13
--
| Anya Turnquist | an4ya2 ^at^ turnquist ^dot^ name
|
http://www.turnquist.name | (remove #'s, etc. to reply)
| Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind
| don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss