I am considering the set-up of a base station in my home. However, I live on the outer edge of a development. Does anyone have any advice on what type of antennae I should use or even if I should attempt this? I've read a good bit about ticking off neighbors on here and I want to try to keep from that if at all possible.
Presently I talk in the evenings(local & skip) on a SWP General Lee, RA250, & Wilson Mag1000 in my truck in the driveway. I have asked the neighbors on both sides of me and they have had no interference issues at this point. I just wanted to move the hobby indoors but don't want to spend alot of money if I'm just going to have to shut it down. Any feedback if I should try this or not and how would be greatly appreciated.
Base Station & Close Neighbors???
-
Circuit Breaker
- Donor
- Posts: 1,665
- Joined: Oct 27 2006, 12:30
- Handle: Circuit Breaker
- Real Name: Stephen
- Call Sign: K7CB
- Antenna: OCF Dipole
- Radio: HR2510/Yaesu FT-950
- Contact:
Since you make no mention of it, I presume you live in a house that has no HOA or deed restrictions prohibiting outdoor antennas. If that is the case, then you have a little less to worry about. If you do cause interference and the FCC gets involved, as long as you're running legally (i.e. FCC type accepted radio with 4 watts AM and 12 watts SSB), they won't take much action (if any) against you because they'll consider the problem to be with the neighbor's equipment being inadequately shielded. However, if they get involved and find out you have illegal equipment - you've just opened up a can of worms.
If you aren't causing any interference running the equipment you are from your vehicle, more than likely you won't cause any problems from the home. However, I would start out with a good antenna and a LEGAL radio. Set it up and operate. See if there are any interference problems. If there are, then you know an amp is out of the question until you can resolve the issues that you already have. If you don't have any problems or you manage to clean up the interference, then add an amp and see what happens.
Also, speaking from experience, set up the antenna but don't connect anything to it for about a week. See if anyone comes to you complaining about interference. When people start having problems they tend to think the cause is that new antenna in the neighborhood. This happened to me once. Fortunately, when the lady came to the door complaining about my radio interfering with her cable TV, my radio was in the shop. There wasn't anything connected to the antenna and I showed her that to prove it wasn't me.
If you aren't causing any interference running the equipment you are from your vehicle, more than likely you won't cause any problems from the home. However, I would start out with a good antenna and a LEGAL radio. Set it up and operate. See if there are any interference problems. If there are, then you know an amp is out of the question until you can resolve the issues that you already have. If you don't have any problems or you manage to clean up the interference, then add an amp and see what happens.
Also, speaking from experience, set up the antenna but don't connect anything to it for about a week. See if anyone comes to you complaining about interference. When people start having problems they tend to think the cause is that new antenna in the neighborhood. This happened to me once. Fortunately, when the lady came to the door complaining about my radio interfering with her cable TV, my radio was in the shop. There wasn't anything connected to the antenna and I showed her that to prove it wasn't me.
-
Visegrip
- Donor
- Posts: 737
- Joined: May 30 2007, 20:57
- Contact:
Circuit Breaker wrote:Since you make no mention of it, I presume you live in a house that has no HOA or deed restrictions prohibiting outdoor antennas. If that is the case, then you have a little less to worry about. If you do cause interference and the FCC gets involved, as long as you're running legally (i.e. FCC type accepted radio with 4 watts AM and 12 watts SSB), they won't take much action (if any) against you because they'll consider the problem to be with the neighbor's equipment being inadequately shielded. However, if they get involved and find out you have illegal equipment - you've just opened up a can of worms.
If you aren't causing any interference running the equipment you are from your vehicle, more than likely you won't cause any problems from the home. However, I would start out with a good antenna and a LEGAL radio. Set it up and operate. See if there are any interference problems. If there are, then you know an amp is out of the question until you can resolve the issues that you already have. If you don't have any problems or you manage to clean up the interference, then add an amp and see what happens.
Also, speaking from experience, set up the antenna but don't connect anything to it for about a week. See if anyone comes to you complaining about interference. When people start having problems they tend to think the cause is that new antenna in the neighborhood. This happened to me once. Fortunately, when the lady came to the door complaining about my radio interfering with her cable TV, my radio was in the shop. There wasn't anything connected to the antenna and I showed her that to prove it wasn't me.
Thats a good idea.
If you have a good relationship with your neighbors you could tell them that you are getting into the cb hobby and if they have any problems with interferance to contact you. Better to call you than someone else
-
Red Drum
-
crazytruker
-
frogman
