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Tear Down Ham Radio Site (eviltoast.org)

submitted 8 months ago by dbtng@eviltoast.org to c/hardware@lemmy.world

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

My good friend's father passed away several years ago. We are going to clean out the garage. He ran a ham radio station. He did a LOT of awful wiring. (USA 110v systems)

I'm gonna clean it all up so there are no fires.

What can I expect? Badly wired 210v setups? Capacitors carrying deadly charge? I'm a computer nerd, and know very little about ham radio.

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[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Most ham radio equipment operates on 12vdc. AC brings noise, so aside from dedicated external power supplies, you won't see much AC-powered equipment.

The maximum power a ham can transmit is 1500 watts. You don't need a 220v circuit to draw 1500 watts, and the majority of hams operate with less than 200. If there is 220v equipment in there, it will be the first I've ever seen.

Don't turn on any transmitters or amplifiers, especially if they aren't connected to an antenna. You can damage the transmitter. Powered on, there is some risk of RF burns should you contact antenna feedlines while transmitting. While any transmitter is powered on, treat all antenna connectors like power outlets. With the transmitter off, they are safe.

Ham radio can be anything from a couple handheld radios to entire rooms full of transmitters feeding acres of antenna arrays. Without knowing what you're dealing with, it's hard to identify any specific risks.

[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Great. I have exactly as much info as you, or I would share more. My whole interest is safety atm, so this is the info I needed.

Thanks to you and other replies. I'll read anything else posted.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What's the antenna situation like? If there's a tower of any sort, I strongly suggest you contact a local ham radio club for advice before trying to remove them.

There's probably a thin wire "dipole" antenna overhead somewhere that should probably be removed if it's not being used. It'll be a wire rope with a feedline in the middle, and the ends strung out to tall objects.

[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

We might have somebody interested in the antenna. I'm going to climb up and inspect it for safety for now.