I'm with you, Steve.  I had a shack in the basement for years, and I had a 
lot of good times in that shack, but I gotta say there's nothing quite as 
nice as having the radios in a nice comfortable room in the house, and not 
having to share with the furnace, the washer and dryer, and all the other 
things that live in the basement.  Once, we had a surprise flood in which 
the entire basement filled with three inches of water in about ten minutes. 
No damage to the equipment, but I was sloshing around in boots while talking 
to a friend of mine on the radio.

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Forst" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 16:29
Subject: Re: rf ground, how long is too long?


> There is nothing wrong with a basement shack, and I had one  for years
> at a previous QTH.  But I wouldn't relegate myself  to a cold and dreary
>  abyss along with last year's Christmas decorations and other junk just
> to  avoid the possibility that there could  perhaps bea  some RF problem.
> It's only a hobby.  Don't reorganize your life and household out of
> paranoia.   If you want a basement shack, go for it and build a nice
> one, but hams have shacks in all parts of the house  and life goes on.
>  Even if you set up in the basement, you will probably have some rf
> problem at some point in your ham career.
>
> 73, Steve KW3A
>
>
>
> On 8/11/2013 7:38 PM, Kent Plemmons wrote:
>> Hi everybody,
>>
>>
>>
>> How long is too long to run my rf ground to an earth ground?
>>
>>
>>
>> I would like to put my hf rig in a room on the main floor of our house 
>> (not
>> a second story) but it would require running my rf ground about 18' to an
>> earth ground.  This room is heated in the winter and is comfortable.  The
>> other option I have is to put it in the basement which is not completely
>> underground and would take some amount of modification to make 
>> comfortable
>> in cold weather but I would only need to run my rf ground about 6' to an
>> earth ground.  I could relocate computer if necessary.  I don't want to 
>> get
>> all set up with antenna cabling etc. just to find out that I should have 
>> put
>> everything in the basement where there is a shorter ground.  Any of you 
>> have
>> similar problem?  Where would you locate?
>>
>>
>>
>> Kent Plemmons somewhere in the Smoky Mountains of NC
>>
>> Skype: kent.plemmons
>>
>> Kk4fff
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>