Hello,
i have ham radio antenna beam which needs to be rotated. However, i assume there must be very big radiation since my radio sends 100W output there.
I need to place arduino + digital compass at the top of that antenna so that o can measure antenna direction real-time.
However, i’m worried how to protect the compass from antenna radiation? Would Faraday cage work for me? Is there any cheap solutions/boxes to do buy it and place my equipment in it so that i don’t need to make it?
Greetings
Have you tested the effects of the RF radiation to make sure there is an effect on the compass or Arduino? Will the RF signal distort the compass readings, and wouldn’t a steel mast pole also have an effect? All beam antenna setups I have seen have a controller near/in the radio room with compass points clearly marked on the rotational control. Does your setup have a different type of controller? How will you supply power to the Arduino at the top of a mast?
A simple copper box grounded via the mast should serve as a Faraday cage with little ferrous magnetic influence in and of itself
RS.
thank you,
good thing is that the motor is 350 deg, so, cabling is not that big issue…
well, i’ll try with the cage, the tower is grounded and can send the LAN up there to hook the arduino and control it, just that radiation is what concerns me, i can’t do any testing before i go up there, and it’s high mountain, can’t carry much equipment up there… and so on…
The simple box cage will also block other RF. The idea is to stop electromagnetic radiation from getting to the Arduino. RF is also electromagnetic radiation. You can’t have one and exclude the other. Testing the effect of the mast doesn’t have to be the actual mast at the actual site. A mockup of the same material would suffice.
RS