Microwave birdhouse heater

I spent much of last week building and assembling the birdhouse/lightning detector antenna. Perhaps you've already read here that we discovered major problems with having the detector antenna in the rafters of the house. Everytime we used one of our light dimmers the detector went crazy and displayed what looked like a megastorm right here in the neighborhood. Unacceptable. By using a small AM radio tuned between stations, I found that the static from the dimmers stopped about 20 feet from the house.

But where could I mount the antenna? The bird feeder is far enough away, but it's too low. For best reception, the antenna needs to be at least 10 feet high. A tower? There are restrictions in our neighborhood (thank goodness) about towers and the like, so that was out of the question.

As bird enthusiasts our solution was perfect - a bird house! We went for a Purple Martin house mounted on a 12 foot high, 4x4 post. Why a Martin house? Well, we like the little fella's in the way they swoop around in the evening catching bugs. We've read that we're more likely to attract other species than Martins to the house, and that's OK.

Once the bird house was up with the post set in concrete, the next step was to dig a shallow, 40 foot trench for the cable run. I used 1 inch, gray PVC conduit in the trench, drilled a hole through the brick to my basement, and ran about 150 feet of CAT5e cable to my upstairs room where my weather computer is located.

The next step was to mount the antenna inside a waterproof housing which I constructed of 3 inch PVC with a top cap and bottom fitting. This assembly was connected via a 1 1/2 inch PVC elbow to a base fitting mounted to the post. For my fellow weather hobbyists, that base fitting, the one mounted on the post, was the hardest to locate. If your plumbing supply store doesn't carry it, check with a pool and spa store, they'll fix you right up!

Almost done - just terminate both ends of the cable with male RJ45 connectors, plug it in and . . . nothing. I've done quite a bit of intricate wiring in my life, but RJ45 connectors are a beast with which I have NO experience. I just couldn't seem to get those 8 little wires into those 8 little slots. I needed help. I hired help. Thanks to Scott Cason of Lagrange Communications. Scott had the knack and the know-how and he had me up and running in short order.

This was a very satisfying project. The birds get new digs. The neighborhood is spared an eyesore. (Heck, some might guess it's some kind of high-tech birdhouse heater.) Best of all, my lightning detector is performing much, much better in terms of sensitivity, accuracy and avoidance of RF interference.