RadioBanter - View Single Post - best material for turning a closet into a Faraday cage

October 19th 05, 04:53 PM

On 18 Oct 2005 22:13:36 -0700, wrote:

All,

I have the opportunity to turn a walk-in closet with door into a ham
station. I'm thinking of turning the closet into a Faraday cage to
help in reducing common-mode QRM. To this this, I will need to line
the entire inside of the closet, including the door, with some type of
metal, and then connect that metal to my ground system.

Question is this: what type of metal would provide acceptable results:
aluminum foil, copper foil, or tin-plated zinc sheets nailed
overlapping along the closet inside?

Thanks in advance,

The Eternal Squire

There are very few good reassons for doing this. There are also
considerations such as any thing that comes in must be bypassed
and filtered (I really mean everthing) so that none of the offending
signals arrive. AC power is the hardest to filter.

The best material and common most one is Copper screening.
Note ALL joints must be soldered or otherwise have a non corroding
and solid joint. The door also must have a 100% contact joint all the
way around (bottom too). The door will usually have phosphor bronze
allow fingers to allow contact around the periphery. What your
attempting to make is a box that has no openings that are
significant till you reach the microwave range.

Why is common mode QRM a big problem?

Allison