"James Barrett" <xucaen@gmail.com> wrote in message news:778a8912-e7b5-4642-8ef2-df847fd43ffe@y20g2000hsy.googlegroups.com... > Hi, I did some searches on google for grounding, but all the > information I have found talks about grounding antennas and such > against lightning strikes. But the grounding I am interested in > researching is the type of ground I would use on my HF radio, power > supply, and antenna tuner. I haven't grounded anything yet, but I > would like to. I seem to have a hazy recollection of reading somewhere > that I should use copper braid and connect it to the house ground. > But during my search I found this image (which basically sums up the > article it came from ) http://www.qsl.net/n5nj/kuby/image16.gif > > Does it really matter if my equipment is ground to the house ground or > should it really be connected to its own external ground? And if/when > I ground to guard against lightning strikes, would I use that same > external ground or go with yet another external ground? > > I'm still doing my research, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask. > > Thanks! > > Jim my own experence is that using the household ground at hf is marginal at best my own result were greatly inproved with aan extrenal seperat e ground

Hi James, There are several good articles at the www.eham site on this very subject. If you can read between the lines of some of the muck slinging, you can come up with several really good solutions. Just click on the "view more articles" link [at the top of the horizontal green separator] HTH. Alain "James Barrett" <xucaen@gmail.com> wrote in message news:778a8912-e7b5-4642-8ef2-df847fd43ffe@y20g2000hsy.googlegroups.com... > Hi, I did some searches on google for grounding, but all the > information I have found talks about grounding antennas and such > against lightning strikes. But the grounding I am interested in > researching is the type of ground I would use on my HF radio, power > supply, and antenna tuner. I haven't grounded anything yet, but I > would like to. I seem to have a hazy recollection of reading somewhere > that I should use copper braid and connect it to the house ground. > But during my search I found this image (which basically sums up the > article it came from ) http://www.qsl.net/n5nj/kuby/image16.gif > > Does it really matter if my equipment is ground to the house ground or > should it really be connected to its own external ground? And if/when > I ground to guard against lightning strikes, would I use that same > external ground or go with yet another external ground? > > I'm still doing my research, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask. > > Thanks! > > Jim >

In article <c15faef4-3961-42fd-866b-4c2c1d8c8c81@d4g2000prg.googlegroups.com>, <kelly@dvol.com> wrote: >This whole topic area seems to be eternally confused and confusing and >I'm in the parade of the confused. On a common sense basis I >absolutely agree with your connecting the station grounds to the >'lectric service entrance ground for the reasons you've stated. > >But somewhere along the line somebody in the ham groups stated that >the National Electrical Code states that there shall be one and *only >one* grounding point per power drop and the neighborhood code cops and >the insurance companies reportedly get stiff about it. > >So is it legal to connect a phalanx of ham station ground rods to the >service entrance ground?? Or not. As I understand it, according to the NEC, you must have only one grounding *system* per building. This system may include two or more ground rods, and/or a bare grounding wire buried in a trench around the outside of the building. The ground rods and wires must be securely bonded together with heavy-gauge wire... that's what ensures that it's all one grounding "system". What's dangerous is, as has been suggested, having separate grounding rods (or grounding subsystems) which aren't well-bonded together. If you connect any electrical apparatus to two such grounding points (e.g. ham radio with a third-prong ground on its line cord, which is also tied to a separate ground rod via the coax feedline), and a lightning strike or a hot-to-ground fault occurs, your electrical apparatus and its wiring can end up carrying a lot of current between the ground points, thus creating a shock or fire hazard. The bonding wires create a low-impedance path for such fault currents, minimizing the voltage differential which exists between the ground rods and thus helping keep down the flow of fault current through undesired paths (e.g. your ham rig). -- Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

In article <c-idnb4CoqCR4dLanZ2dnUVZ_s2tnZ2d@comcast.com>, James Barrett <xucaen@comcast.net> wrote: >The is probably the biggest point of confusion for me. What do you mean >by "RF ground"? The type of ground I was asking about is the ground >terminal on the back of my radio,not the three prong power plug. There >is the ground terminal on the back of my radio and there is also a >ground terminal on my power supply, even though both have three prong >power plugs. So, are the ground terminals on the back of my radio and >power supply called RF ground, or are the called Power ground? Because I >thought that the power ground was the three prong plug. The intent of the third prong on the power plug is to provide a safe path from the equipment chassis, back to the power panel (where the neutral and hot are bonded together). This ensures that if there's a fault inside the equipment, and a "hot" wire touches the chassis, the stray current will immediately flow back to the panel via this ground connection (and likely cause a fuse to blow or a breaker to trip very quickly). It ensures that you don't end up with a chassis which is "hot", and isolated from ground... just waiting for somebody to touch it, accidentally complete a path to ground via their body, and get themselves mildly dead. The intent of the ground terminal on the back of the radio is to let you tie the radio chassis to a good RF ground, so that if any RF reaches the chassis via conduction (e.g. coming back down the feedline) it doesn't leave you with a chassis which is RF-hot compared to grounded objects nearby (this could cause an RF burn if you touch the chassis, or sneak back into the microphone wiring and cause weird squawking sounds when you transmit). It's also necessary if you plan to use a random-wire or similar unbalanced antenna which is designed to work against the station ground (e.g. radials or counterpoises). It's normally the practice to bond *all* of the equipment in your shack together with good (short, heavy) grounding wire or braid... once again, ensuring that different pieces of equipment have their chassis at the same (or nearly the same) AC and RF potential. By doing so, you are in effect bonding together your power/safety ground, and your station RF ground, creating a single ground system. Because this in-the-station ground bonding isn't really designed to handle massive amounts of fault current (e.g. from lighting) and since it's in an area where you really don't want such fault current to flow (e.g. your shack), it's still important to bond your station's "RF ground" rod, and your house's service-panel ground rod, together as per NEC. -- Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

<kelly@dvol.com> wrote in message news:c15faef4-3961-42fd-866b-4c2c1d8c8c81@d4g2000prg.googlegroups.com... > On Nov 27, 8:46 pm, Dave Heil <k...@frontiernet.net> wrote: >> James Barrett wrote: > But somewhere along the line somebody in the ham groups stated that > the National Electrical Code states that there shall be one and *only > one* grounding point per power drop and the neighborhood code cops and > the insurance companies reportedly get stiff about it. the NEC refering only to the household AC wring(soon hopefully to DC circuts at least according to the local electrical inspector our system for RF are another affair all together the inspector also aprooves the use if desired of seperate eletectal ground when service of more than one voltage and/ot freq is ainvolved in my case I have a houshold from the ower company enterance a seprate gorund for my various solar and wind systems 12-48 v DCdepending on the location plus the seperate Ground from my station most inspector in my experence would rather our rf system were not grounded in to the mais ground since they don't uderstand RF at all

>>The intent of the third prong on the power plug is to provide a safe >>path from the equipment chassis, back to the power panel (where the >>neutral and hot are bonded together). > >You do mean the neutral and ground, right? Erp. Yes, indeed! Bonding neutral and hot at the panel would be spectacular, but rather useless :-) -- Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!