Building a house.

Many here suggested running 220v line to station.

Conveyed that to electrician today and he asked what amperage so he could run the correct line.

Hell if I know?  

Obviously a newb at this.  

What’s the right answer?  What amperage for my 220v line to my station?

This is for future proofing.  I’m a tech level operator now.  Would like to graduate to General (HF) in the future.

Thanks

Edit: we also discussed grounding and he recalled one guy had ground rods driven every eight feet around the perimeter of his  house to get a good solid ground.  Said that facet of the project cost $6,000.  

Small house can get by on a 100 amp service however virtually every single-family residence these days has a 200 amp service.  The next step up would be a 400 amp service, and you will find some homes with a service that large.  You really need to be sure you need it before you request it since you will pay a demand fee whether you use the additional ampacity or not.  In addition, the higher the ampacity the larger the wire, conduit, and panelboards will be.

$6k sounds excessive, but if they're using copper everything, it gets pricey quick.
Regarding the amperage, most legal limit amps should be fine on a 20 amp 240v circuit. Most 13.8v power supplies will do either 120v or 240v, so figure out what your expected load is and go from there. I always recommend adding more than you think you'll ever need. Better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

200 amp service

You guys are answering the wrong question, I think. I don't believe the OP is asking how large a service should go into his house, I believe he is asking how many circuits and what size should go into the box for his radio room.

I'd recommend a minimum of two separate 15A, 110V circuits. These will be dedicated to your radios, computers, vibrating lounge chair, whatever. Add to that at least one 30A, 4 wire, 220V circuit. This latter circuit will be dedicated to your 1500W (legal limit) amplifier (that you will have someday ).

That's really all you need.

However, don't let them provision AFCI breakers on those lines if you can get away with it without having an electrical code violation. AFCI breakers can be very electrically noisy if they are not good ones.

Some of the AFCI or GFCI breakers can also be RF-sensitive, such that they trip due to RF.

If you're pulling wires to new outlets, I'd give some thought to putting 10 or so big Fair-Rite 31 torroids on each line. I think 3 wire romex will fit through my usual 2631102002 torroid. Might have to go to a bigger size for the 4 wire cable for the 240 circuit.

If you're building a house, I'd give some thought to stacking a handful of those torroids on every outlet and light fixture. Anywhere you have a dimmer switch, put 10. I don't know how much that would cost. Buying them in bulk from lodestone pacific is somewhat less than single-item retail.

This is PRECISELY what I was asking.  You answered my exact question.  

Thank you.

Thanks to everyone for the advice

+1
I did exactly this.

One thing I did when building my station was by my equipment rack i put in a black colored outlet that was not tied to grid power but was instead tied to other black outlets around the room - especially where my operating positions were.  That way I could put in one industrial size UPS and plug it in to the “black” colored outlet by the UPS and it would “back-feed” the Black outlets in my double gang boxes around the room so that I could put anything I want on that single UPS just by plugging it into one of the black outlets.

Otherwise I have two 220a circuits and they’re 20amp.  (I have two LL amps).  If in doubt no reason not to put in a 30.  I have several 15amp 120v circuits as well but thats standard stuff.

20 amps is 4800 watts.  Your amp would have to be pretty inefficient to need anywhere near that I think.

Good luck!

If you don't have electric heating (air or water) and you're not going to run welders, 100A is generally fine.  But 200A gives you more breathing room for sure.

Now, how much to your radio room?   Have the electrician run a 50A/220V run to a subpanel in the radio room, then break it out for whatever you need.

As a electrician the smart thing is to have him run a 3/4” flex or pipe to the panel for the future and install a pull string, then have him run 2 dedicated 20a circuits if you wish or wait till it is done and add them to the flex yourself.

The arc fault bs is crazy  nowadays and adding them later you can avoid that and also have a path for anything in the future that needs power in the flex or conduit.

Have them install a dedicated 230VAC circuit of at least 20A capacity. This will run a legal limit amplifier.
Also ask to install several 120VAC, 20A circuits instead of standard 15A runs.

It is a consideration but run the number on materials.   50amp circuits require a lot heavier wire for steady loading.   A welder gets by lighter wire on an exemption due to limited run time,....the machine shuts off itself so the wire is protected.  

I bet but don’t know you have limited draw of power, ie you ‘re not holding the transmit button for 15 minutes straight.  


My 20 amp 240v circuit for my metal lathe iirc was only 10 or 8 ga.  And I upped my wire size one size.  30 amp for a basic but not long run only needs 10 ga wire iirc.

Good call.   My garage 120V outlets are all wired and set on 20 amp circuits.   Only my lights and ceiling fans are on 15 amp circuits.

Tell me more about these torroids.    

Do you physically just slide them over the end of the wire?    

Can you leave them stacked together on the end or must you space them out over the length of the wiring?  

Can you buy these or equivalent at a more local source or must they be purchased online?

I know nothing about these and my electricians were not too familiar with them either.

Thanks.

I wouldn't suspect your electricians would know anything about radio frequency interference filtering unless they were specifically involved in communications, or working on something like a sound or television studio.

http://www.yccc.org/Articles/W1HIS/CommonModeChokesW1HIS2006Apr06.pdf
Look on pages 34 and 37 for what I'd suggest. What's on page 34 is the size I suggest, putting say 5 on common circuits, and 10 or a few more on things likely to generate noise.  They just get slid onto the wire before it gets stuck into a box.

If you are wiring in landline telephones I would put a binocular-type choke on those at the outlets.

Don't complicate things. A licensed electrician won't mess with installing any "toroids" over wires. It may be costly to do this right and by code. Most electricians don't even know much about RF circuits. Keep it simple! RF blocking can be added later IF you have issues with stray RF getting into any devices. Heck, RF will often get into things through grounding conductors. Deal with it later, if necessary. It's a lot easier to deal with it later than to install RF chokes, filters and what not on all circuits.

Just tell this to the electricians: Run a dedicated "220" Volt, 20 amp circuit into the shack and install a 220V receptacle. This is it. 20 amps is well enough for any legal limit amplifier.  You don't really need more capacity. Use the receptacle for your amplifier only.

They will probably run a two conductor (+ ground), 12 gauge cable. There are two "hot" wires and a ground, no neutral on a typical "220" volt receptacle. I called it - "220" volt because this is what people call it most of the time. Actual voltage is at about 230-250V, averaging at about 240 VAC.

IDK how long of a run OP is talking about, but 6/3 copper cable is under $4/foot, a 50A breaker is $10, and a small breaker panel is $35.  So maybe he comes out to $200 in materials.  Given the future-proofing and flexibility, I don't know if that's a terribly large bill.

Maybe OP really won't ever need 50A.  Maybe 30A is fine, that's cool.   But a subpanel is a lot more flexible than just running a circuit or two.

Thanks a lot guys.  Great info here