Montana's Ham Radio Forum

So when my house was originally built, there was a small room right off a bathroom that was obviously the room for the dryer, as it has a 220V plug there. I have now taken over that room and it has become by ham shack. There is only one other outlet in that room, and it is already running my DSL modem, backup hard drive, and a few other digital devices, so I'm kind of restrained on power. The 220V is a potentially convenient power source (with its own breaker, even) and I'd like to get it wired for use for radios, but I'm not an electrician. I would obviously need a transformer or inverter to bring the voltage down, and I'd love to put in a PowerPole strip there for ease. I'm looking for ideas.

Hi Blaire, You can actually use that for supplying your radios and maybe an HF amplifier later on. Since it has its own breaker. I would get a small breaker box from one of the hardware stores. From there you can wire some outlets in the room and they would have the benefit of being on their own breaker. The 240vac line to the dryer outlet is actually two legs of 120vac. with a neutral wire, and possibly a ground wire. If the ground wire isn't there you can wire to one of the water pipes that should be nearby in the old laundry room, or as a last resort drive a ground rod in outside the "shack" and route it inside. If you need help with this just let me know and I can come take a look at it.