LOL James,
im sure you know that you are not the first or last radio nut to go through a frustrating period of time while getting your station up and running.
everyone goes through this at one time or another.
time to sit back, have a beer, and whatever else calms you down, and just chill out a bit.
OHM-ma ne pad me-OHM LOL.
where do i start? hmmm...
lets start with your biggest worry; that its your house electrical system that is either causing or exacerbating the interference problem.
i have to apologize to you for not suggesting this test earlier, but its usually done in mobile installations when the vehicle's accessories are causing interference to the CB.
simple test to see whether the noise is coming in from the power source or from the antenna system.
turn the radio on to one of the channels experiencing the noise.
unscrew antenna coax from the back of the radio, and set aside.
is the noise still there?
if the noise is still there, then its coming in from the power source.
if the noise is gone, then the antenna is picking up the noise.
if the noise is gone when you remove the antenna from the radio, then suspect your neighbors, and/or the transformer behind your house.
if the noise is still there just as loud as it was before, then you can worry about your house electrical system.
now, about the coax.
dude, you already have the best coax you can get.
LMR400 is superior to RG213.
the braid is not aluminum or steel, it is copper. (i am not guessing here)
yes, copper comes silver colored as well as copper colored.
all LMR400 has a high velocity gas injected closed cell foam dielectric.
im not sure what you think is wrong with that, but i can assure you, there is nothing wrong with that.
as for the connectors, i thought i remembered someone telling you specifically to have the company you ordered the coax from put the ends on for you.
i told you this because i know how hard in can be for a beginner to properly put the ends on.
let me ask you this; are you going to trust the ends once you get the system all installed and up in the air, or are you always going to be wondering if you did it right and if thats why things arent going your way when they arent?
see if you can find a place locally that will solder the PL-259's on for you.
that will be your best bet.
you are right to worry about the condition of the dielectric if you have torched the connector.
now what, lets see, oh; the delrin rod.
i will first admit that i have never cut delrin so i dont know how it tools.
assuming that it will tool ok; if you have a table saw, you can turn it down to size yourself.
you will need a blade with a lot of teeth since you are cutting plastic.
set the fence of the saw at about 1/16" less than the inside diameter of your mast.
clamp a stop onto the fence so the rod cannot be pushed further into the blade than you want it to.
lower the blade until it is just touching the delrin rod.
now you can feed the rod into the saw, slicing off just a little bit.
remove the rod, rotate it a bit, and repeat.
keep doing this until you have "turned" the whole thing down.
if you have never used a table saw before; i would not recommend this, but if you have experience with one, this will work for you.
as for the choke balun; to keep the weight to a minimum, cut off the portion that you dont need.
you are only doing 4 or 5 turns, and with 1/2" coax, that only equates to 2 or three inches.
so cut your PVC down to 4 or 5 inches and you should be fine.
(wasnt sure if you were planning on hanging the whole thing off your mast)
on to the ground wire.
the solution to your dilemma about the mast ground cable is simple.
NO MAST GROUND CABLE!!!
i thought i said this already.
yes, that is what im saying.
dont use it.
dont need it.
dont do it.
got it?
your antenna will be grounded through the coax shield and protected from lightning by using the polyphaser mounted at the ground rod.
i understand you said that you cant afford one yet, but think about what you are proposing.
you want to connect a ground wire to a mast that has nothing electrically attached to it.
you have isolated your antenna from this mast by using the delrin rod.
attaching a ground wire to the feedpoint of the antenna would defeat the entire purpose of isolating the antenna from the mast.
see where im going with this?
for now, just substitute a barrel connector for the polyphaser, (remember, you have two runs of coax. one from the antenna to the polyphaser at the ground rod, and one from the polyphaser to the radio equipment.) and using a hose clamp and some ground wire; connect the barrel connector to the ground rod.
that way, when you get your polyphaser, you can just stick it in place and go.
you will be fine running without the polyphaser until you get it. just disconnect the coax and put it out the window if there is a big electrical storm. (DO NOT put the end of the coax in a glass jar. that is very old, very bad advice)
the buss bar that grounds your equipment to your antenna ground rod at this time; why did you not mention this before when describing your setup?
have you considered that because this wire is very long, that it might be picking up and radiating stray RF and other noises?
you might try disconnecting the buss bar from everything and see if that makes any difference in your interference. hey, its worth a shot.
once you get a ground rod pounded in right outside the equipment location, connect the other ground rods directly to it.
ground rods connected to ground rods, ground wire from equipment ground rod to buss bar (shorter than 8 feet if at all possible), and short ground wires from each piece of equipment to the buss bar.
this will help you prevent ground loops.
as for the article; they are telling you not to rely on a water pipe connection alone to be the ground connection for your equipment.
once you put a ground rod in the ground outside the radio room, your equipment has a short, direct path to ground, and will not be affected by that ground rod being connected to the other ground rods.
electricity takes the path of least resistance right?
so, if your equipment is looking for a path to ground, and you have provided a great path by pounding an 8 foot ground rod into the ground right outside your radio room, then the equipment is going to take that path to ground.
it will not run all around your house by way of your ground rod connections looking for another path.
longer wires have more resistance.
and just in case i havent said it enough; all ground rods should be connected together, and they should be connected to the ground rod that is connected to the house electrical system.
one more thing, when running all these ground wires around the house to connect all your rods together; remember that lightning doesnt like sharp bends.
always make a gradual, radial turn instead of making a 90* bend in the ground wires.
best of luck to you, and remember, this is just cb radio.
chances are, even if you do get rid of all your noise problems; there's only going to be a few idiots out there to talk to anyway. LOL
LC