How a Change Made All the Difference
lou giovannetti (KB2DHG)
on
July 6, 2008
View comments about this article!
I had to disassemble my shack for a re-paint of the room, which was no small feet.
Being off the air for 3 weeks I wondered how to make it easer to access the back part of my equipment. It has always been a project or impossibility to work on the backside of the radios...
I have my equipment situated on a nice size computer desk. It is solid and strong. What I did was go to the local home improvement store and purchased heavy felt pads. I stuck them on the bottom of the desk. My desk is on a hard wood floor so the pads make it easy to slide in and out with little or no effort.
While I had the station apart I took a piece of copper strip and mounted it on the back part of the shelf that supports the second row of radios. Then I soldered several #12 wires to it. This was for all the common grounds that needed to be attached to the equipment, I turned them into a coil so they would not be draping all over. I then assembled the station together making short Ground runs to each apparatus... I also was able to make sure ALL inter- connections were secure and right.
Let me back up here a minute. I live in a restricted condo. I was able to erect only one wire antenna so my antenna of choice was the famed G5RV dipole. I have been operating this arrangement with fair results for the last 2 years. I was not able to tune up all HF bands but did the best I could with what I had.
So after I reassembled everything tidied up all the wiring, I simply slid the desk into position. THIS WAS A GREAT advantage to now be able to work behind the rigs without all the trouble of reaching and hoping you got it right. So now I have my station reassembled and I am back on the air.
Much to my surprise I am now able to tune up on ALL bands and my SWRs are much lower? The only conclusion I can make is the new and better ground system I constructed and that I had good connections throughout the station. Everything else was the same as before. BUT I had better connections and could see what I was doing.
The felt pads worked great but for you people out there who have your table or desk on a carpet do not despair, You can use these furniture moving coasters that do work just as well.
So if you are so inclined try getting your operating table or desk to be a bit mobile and make sure ALL connections are tight and the grounds are right!
Hope to catch you on the air, till then, 73 DE: KB2DHG
This article has expired. No more comments may be added.
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by KE4GRP on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Good article, Lou. I too had the same problem trying to get to the rear of all the equipment. I put a new L shaped desk in and arranged it so I could walk behind it and fix anything I needed to.
I am located on the second floor of our home, so grounding is sort of a problem. I have some thin wires going from the equipment to the center of an electrical outlet. On one occasion, I didn't hook up the ground, and much to my suprise, I was unable to tune 80 meters. After I hooked them up, no problem. Just goes to show you how important grounding is.
Thanks
Chuck
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by W4XKE on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Great ideas there, Lou. Thanks for sharing them with us. Just a word of caution to everyone though on the grounding; you should provide a quick disconnect from your ground in case of thunderstorms.
One of our local hams, Charlie, N8JKL, had all his equipment grounded when a lightning strike occurred. Even though he had everything unplugged from the 110/220 and had all the antennae disconnected, he lost it all. About a zillion volts came in on the ground wire and went right down the whole row of radios, tuners, power supplies and accessories.
Now, when my dog, Daisy hears thunder and comes scrunching up next to my leg, I disconnect everything; including the MAIN GROUND cable! I learned from Charlie’s costly experience before the same thing happened to my station.
Johnny
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by N2EY on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Glad it worked out for you!
Just one comment:
Ground connections (outside of equipment) shouldn't be soldered. They can be bolted, clamped, cadwelded, etc. but solder isn't a good choice. Here's why:
1) In the case of connections that may actually have to carry lightning or fault currents, the solder can actually melt or boil. (Hopefully your ground connections will never be tested this way!)
2) Soldering can be a mechanical weak point, so that with flexing the wire breaks just where the solder ends.
3) Electrical codes don't allow soldered ground connections.
73 de Jim, N2EY
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by W4VR on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
You're certain to get plenty of advice from the self-ordained grounding experts that frequent this forum.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by WB4TJH on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Rightly said! The ONLY way to insure that your gear survives a direct or near by lightning strike is to totally remove them from the AC outlets, antennas and ALL ground connections during a storm. I have had several friends who removed antennas from their rigs, but left ground connections in place, and when lightning hit near, it traveled up the grounds and STILL burned out all their gear. I make it a rule to romove ALL my gear from antennas, AC, and ground connections when I'm not using it. In 38 years as a ham, I have never had any damage to my radios from lightning. I don't trust any expensive, or fancy gadgets to protect my radios, I just rely on common sense. (knock on wood).
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by WA1HSU on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
A question for WB4TJH: I understand and don't disagree with your lightning protection idea at all, however I'm curious as to how you make your ground connections so that they function as intended and are also easy to connect and disconnect. I live in South Florida where in the summer a thunderstorm or the threat of a thunderstorm is an almost daily event and can arise fairly quickly. Thanks.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by N6PYF on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Grounding and Lightning protection can sometimes be a matter of luck. For example, my wife’s cousins live in Germany and when I asked him why he didn’t have lightning protection on his house, like most of his neighbors did, his reply was: “If I put up lightning protection the insurance company would find something wrong with either the design or installation and deny my claim if I got hit. But, if I didn’t put in any protection and my house was hit, they would cover any losses.”
I guess the meaning behind this is that every installation of lightning or grounding is unique to that application. Granted there a few basic standards for designing a system but there are no guarantees every site will behave like it’s designed.
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by KC8BYF on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
A short 3/16 inch braid to each piece of equipment to a centrally placed #1 copper buss bar from an old circuit distribution panel is the heart of my station ground.
From there I run braided 3/4 inch wide strap wire (about 8 ft total length) to a series of 8 foot ground rods 6 feet apart just outside the shack. This "main strap" is connected to the buss bar while the station is in operation via a large (really large) alligator style clamp.
Of course, when I am not running the station the alligator clamp is disconnected along with the antenna feed lines and coax cables as well. All the antenna feed lines and coaxes come to a bulk head mounted on the wall to make for easy access. Disconnection of the primary voltage source to all the station equipment is done as well when I'm not "on". This is much easier when dedicated circuits were run to "feed the shack". I wish I knew how to add pictures to the comments here because a picture is worth a million words in this case.
Having a correctly grounded station prevents a great deal of problems including (just to name a couple) stray R.F. and spurious emissions. Running a low pass filter on an HF rig is totally pointless if the filter isn't properly grounded. Think about that one if you're one of the folks who run completely un-grounded stations. Nothing like getting "bitten" from the older tube type equipment due to a lack of that GROUND. Of course there are as many philosophies on station grounding as there are on ways to ground your station properly. Since lightnings whole purpose is to find the path of least resistance to ground... Perhaps the un-grounded set (totally un-grounded if that's truly possible) is the best way to avoid a terminal hit (just kidding).
The comment about bolting (not soldering) was right on the mark. Soldered connections can not take the current and voltage of most lightning/static strikes.
The most recent NEC (national electric code) states that a station ground, telephone, home wiring and any other types of grounds in a structure should be tied (connected) together and connected to a common ground... THIS IS SOMETHING I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH. Even being an electrician for a good number of years (now retired) I certainly do not agree, in any meaning of the word agree, with grounding ALL electrical devices and such in a residence to a common ground point. The NEC states that this is a fire prevention technique. I think it's a good way to "lose" all electrical (especially integrated circuits units) devises with one good stiff static or lightning hit...Maybe I'm way off the base here but the words GROUND LOOP really ring in my ears on this procedure.
One other point to be made... Don't ever share the antenna ground (i.e. towers etc.) with the station ground. Station ground and antenna grounds should always be separate.
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by KC8BYF on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
By the way Lou... Sounds like a great idea with the "coaster" things. I want to paint my shack and have been procrastinating on the idea for a LONG time due to the immobile desk situation here. Thanks for the ideas.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by N4BFD on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
The point of connecting the station ground to the common service ground is to prevent a ground loop. If your station ground with it's many rods and superior ground is hooked up and you have lightening coming in on the service side... it's going to fry everything thing in it's path on the way to your stations better ground.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by CBISBACK on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
by KC8BYF on July 6, 2008 Wrote:
"The most recent NEC (national electric code) states that a station ground, telephone, home wiring and any other types of grounds in a structure should be tied (connected) together and connected to a common ground... THIS IS SOMETHING I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH. Even being an electrician for a good number of years (now retired) I certainly do not agree, in any meaning of the word agree, with grounding ALL electrical devices and such in a residence to a common ground point. The NEC states that this is a fire prevention technique. I think it's a good way to "lose" all electrical (especially integrated circuits units) devises with one good stiff static or lightning hit...Maybe I'm way off the base here but the words GROUND LOOP really ring in my ears on this procedure."
-----------------------------------------------------
So what this means is this:
If your station takes a lightning strike and your insurance company decides that you were in violation of the NEC KC8BYF will pay for your loss.
I think you'd be better off doing exactly what the NEC suggests rather than following KC8BYF's advice.
Last I read, the concept of grounding all to a single point allows all to rise and fall at the same time. Of course, this assumes everything is properly grounded and bonded.
Me, I'd follow the code before I followed the advice of a retired electrician who probably is no longer licensed and bonded ;-)
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by K2WH on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I can't believe you did this cause I did exactly the same thing for exactly the same reasons.
Wife wanted new carpet and also paint. Oh she said all this (my stuff) had to be moved. Since I am on carpet I got those teflon furniture mover thingys. Using a small crow bar (the kind used for removing wood trim), I was able to lift each side of the desk and slid the movers under the desk. This desk does not have legs, it has full sides. Anyway, with all the weight on the desk, I just slid the desk out, stopped, pulled all the plugs, tucked in all the wires (from behind the desk), and moved the entire thing into the next room.
New carpet in and new paint job, I just reversed the move and plugged everything back in.
K2WH
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by 5R8GQ on July 6, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Hey Lou:
Great article! Glad the grounding system is working out for you. Sounds like you like yor G5RV, have you considered a doublet fed with ladder line instead?
Might be an improvement on bands other than the 20m
the G5RV was designed for.
Not a criticism!!! Just a thought.....
Enjoy your station and have fun!
73, Ken
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by KI6JUU on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Good advice N2EY. The NEC and all government codes I'm familiar with prohibit the soldering of ground connections or busses.
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by BHARDIMON on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Old timey hams and their anal retentive obsession with grounding. One of these days you'll figure it out, regardless of what your 1955 ARRL manual says, your "station ground" most likely does nothing. Grounding a tower is a different matter. Also, lose the exclamation points...what ever you are writing is not that interesting or exciting. Station grounds, ladder line and morse code, it's no wonder ham radio is for old men hopelessly trapped in 1960. Update yourselves.
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by KB2DHG on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I want to thank all of you for your comments and ideas.
I changed my grouding system and removed the soldered connections. I attached grounding lugs instead and then made a plug to disconnect the complete ground for electrical storms. This site has helped me so much in this hobby I thank the creators and all you fine people out there.
Lou KB2DHG
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by N3QE on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Excellent points. A few other construction techniques that are available:
1. Copper pipe can be used instead of copper strip.
2. Copper or tinned-copper ground braids can be a lot more flexible than heavy copper wires, and do a better job of RF grounding too.
3. Electrical codes frown on soldering the ground connections, although whether these rules matter much after you get to the operating desk I'm not sure. After all if there's enough current flowing in the ground to melt the solder then it's a pretty bad situation for your equipment ... and anyway a lightning stroke won't have any trouble jumping a gap from a failed solder joing!. But the generally used method of attaching ground braid to copper pipes is hose clamps and it is very reconfigurable etc.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by KA4KOE on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
"Station grounds, ladder line and morse code, it's no wonder ham radio is for old men hopelessly trapped in 1960. Update yourselves."
Ummmmm....
There's still no better or simpler way to feed a multiband dipole (we're not talking about the famous Fan Dipole of Eham Lore) than with twin lead. Try to feed one with coaxial cable combined with high VSWR on an even harmonic, and see what happens.....nice and lossy. The higher the VSWR, the worse off you are.
I pack twin lead in my emergency radio go kit with my PRC1099...very low loss, only one antenna needed, extremely simple setup. Made oodles of contacts with 20w, and the 130' long doublet was at 40', working all bands 80m thru 10m.
Sometimes lessons from the past need to be remembered and not thrown out the window.
Coaxial cable has its place....feeding antennas with reasonable SWR. The convenience factor is its biggest plus. Using twinlead, one has to be careful. This stuff takes skill. If it was all "plug and play", then what would be the appeal.
As to the other points in your comment, well, I'll let the others on this fine, civil forum address those.
Good afternoon to you, sir.
Philip Neidlinger
KA4KOE
|
| |
|
WOOOPS !
|
|
|
by KC8BYF on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
by KC8BYF on July 6, 2008 Wrote:
"The most recent NEC (national electric code) states that a station ground, telephone, home wiring and any other types of grounds in a structure should be tied (connected) together and connected to a common ground... THIS IS SOMETHING I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH. Even being an electrician for a good number of years (now retired) I certainly do not agree, in any meaning of the word agree, with grounding ALL electrical devices and such in a residence to a common ground point. The NEC states that this is a fire prevention technique. I think it's a good way to "lose" all electrical (especially integrated circuits units) devises with one good stiff static or lightning hit...Maybe I'm way off the base here but the words GROUND LOOP really ring in my ears on this procedure."
OK, I will have to say now, I stand humbly corrected after doing a days worth of research on this matter. However, I will have to say that grounding EVERYTHING to a common ground point that is "electrically connected" by any means in the residence or structure including the ham shack is a VERY expensive adventure. It would be my estimation that very few amateur ops do this extensive grounding procedure per the NEC requirements. That would stand to reason that very few of us amateur radio ops would even remotely be covered by our insurances should we suffer a loss, should the insurance investigation determine that our station had not been grounded per the NEC code requirements, in the event that we take a lightning strike. The large corporate owned radio stations have much more lucrative budgets to perform the extensive grounding required to survive the commonly encountered direct lightning strikes.
I read a good number of articles on lightning characteristics. Along with the lightning articles I researched a good number of articles concerning station grounding, structure grounding and the bonding of all such electrical devises and entities within a structure ,yesterday and today (have to love the access of the internet). Peculiar that the NEC is so typical of many relative materials in only explaining that one needs to perform a task and says nothing in regards to the "how and why"...mainly the why. I now understand the reasoning for such extensive grounding SYSTEMS much better than previously. Believe me please, it was not my intension to mislead anyone in any way.
The ARRL had a few really good articles via old issues (not too old) of QST magazine on grounding. I learned a lot from reading all I had the time to read. These types of articles both from ARRL and other entities are readily available with a google search on "lightning amateur radio protection" in the keyword search.
I understand this was mainly a posting on "how to move an OP desk" and not so much on lightning protection which comfortably (or not so much) found a niche within the content therein. I would like to see a post or perhaps a thread on just how extensively a SAFE ground system for both the station and lightning protection requires one to put forward the financial aspects and time investment potentials.
Again I stand humbly corrected on the fact that my gun went off half cocked on the matter concerning NEC considerations in proper grounding for an amateur radio station.
|
| |
|
RE: WOOOPS !
|
|
|
by N3QE on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Some interesting things flying back and forth about NEC and protecting our equipment.
As a matter of fact, the NEC is there to make sure houses don't burn down and people don't die from touching plumbing fixtures or their cable TV box under common failure scenarios that have all happened in the past. The writers of the NEC don't care much whether our equipment gives up the ghost or not. They're just making sure all the grounds are bonded together for fire and personal safety.
In real life, by following and then going beyond (RF grounding in particular) the NEC procedures, we can do a good amount to protect our equipment. The thread hasn't gotten anywhere near those measures yet except to note that single-point grounding is the way to go.
|
| |
|
NEC 2009 Coming Soon To a Project Near You....
|
|
|
by KA4KOE on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
The NEC 2009 is going to have them all screaming for mercy....been taking some courses and it ain't pretty.
|
| |
|
RE: NEC 2009 Coming Soon To a Project Near You....
|
|
|
by KB1LKR on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Can you elaborate a little on the NEC 2009 changes?
|
| |
|
copper connection question
|
|
|
by N6HPX on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
How would this work on a station who's wall is not your standard home items like for example a wood wall, my home is made of Hollow bricks as I live over seas. I also disconnect the antennas from the rigs and put them outside the window.
But again I do need to ask about that part of the connection and is this gonna work the same on a home made of bricks or hollow bricks.
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by KD4LLA on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
There is a guy who took a lightning hit to the head and lived here in Minnesota the other day. Then I see a young camper got killed by lightning in Colorado this weekend. So, when are of YOU experts can figure out the whys and the wheres of these two incidents I will add/change my station grounding. In a near/direct hit there is nothing you can do but hope the radios, telephones, and computers are in a box off premises. Lightning is the reason that my insurance agent gets money every year for replacements, should the need occur. Maybe when I get home from my vacation all will be gone and I can buy new stuff.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by N6HPX on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
heck for me I just unplug everything from Telephones to radios etc...as there was an article in Pop elcectronics that should even a lightning strike 100 miles away can have an effect..as has happened to a lady who answered her phone during a strike that far away..
For me I just turn it off and leave the room..as in the Philippines we have it every day..
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by HAMMERTIME on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
For what its worth, my brother does satellite installs and says one time he got numerous calls from the same guy regarding lightning and his LNB during the first few weeks of storm season. The guy had his dish grounded and when he removed the ground, no more service calls for a blown LNB!
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by HAMMERTIME on July 7, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
KD4LLA said "There is a guy who took a lightning hit to the head and lived here in Minnesota the other day."
What does getting hit in the head by lightning have to do with the guy living in Minnesota for one day?
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by W5WSS on July 8, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
The best lightning protection possible involves dissipating the potential that is induced on your metalic conductors because of a rise in static build-up prior to the actual stroke of lightning. The procedure involves installing powder puff(lots of sharp points) like lightning arrestors above the antenna,or building etc. and directly connecting to a stainless steel ground rods with weather proofed connection,large 1/0 wide conductors(surface area) are best for this duty. to minimize the induction,and forming an effective low resistance path designed to help reduce the probability some. based on the faraday principles. by attempting to be electrically balanced or nuetral with respect to the static charges in the nearby thunderstorms. Not even the above mentioned measures could ever offer 100% protection to 1,000,000 amps ie. Again attempting to dissipate the potential(trickle to ground) outside/intercept to the ground rods is best. The electrical grounding measures in a home, bonding etc offers very little upon a direct stroke that pulverises everything. comply, but know you as a ham have taken the best approach with the faraday sheild that work to either reducing the stroke or placing an intercept path between air and ground or vica/versa. Transmitters need to be enclosed,bonded together with other radio equipment mostly for rf sheilding. this will be the secondary lessor protection to lightning should it be strong enough to get inside at which point you will be lucky to fall in that small fraction where cabinetry sheilded the electronics! Regards w5wss 73 ps the reason those fibreglass vertical antennas are hit so often is because amidst an electrical storm the antenna is acting like a capacitor building up a potential charge around about the fibre glass material itself that can not be dissipated using faraday principles...It will do so at its inherent dialectric constant often times too late! Nasa did extensive research in the pursuit of a material for their shuttle program and is where they were able to measure the electrical charges induced on fibre glass sheets.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by KA4KOE on July 8, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Ask Charles KC8VWM. He grabbed a bonding jumper the other day, and was lucky he didn't become "ground chuck" at that moment.
To the gentlemen asking about the 2008 revisions to the NEC; the changes are numerous. Please go online and do a simple google search or goto www.mikeholt.com
I always tell people NO WAY a widget 2 inches long is gonna stop an arc that's miles in length.
PHILIP
KA4KOE
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by AB0WR on July 9, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
To those worried about the "grounding" of their station causing problems with their insurance I would make sure to understand the difference between an RF ground used to make your station work well and a "safety" ground for the electric power feeds.
Tying the station ground to the power ground to prevent ground loops I believe assumes that the station ground is a "safety" ground as well as an RF ground.
Using this logic, everyone that installs radials under a vertical antenna (possibly a long, *long* distance from the house) to offer a better "ground plane" should make sure all those radials are tied into electric/telephone safety grounds. The same thing would apply to the ground connection used with an end-fed Zepp antenna. I don't believe that is the intent of the NEC rules and regulations.
I'm not saying this bonding should not be done! I'm just saying that if push comes to shove my insurance man will be told that my grounding system is to make my RF transmitting system work better and isn't for safety ground purposes at all.
tim ab0wr
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by CBISBACK on July 10, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
by AB0WR
"I'm not saying this bonding should not be done! I'm just saying that if push comes to shove my insurance man will be told that my grounding system is to make my RF transmitting system work better and isn't for safety ground purposes at all. "
-----------------------------------------------------
You can babble about RF all you want, insurance companies are smarter than you and they have more lawyers on retainer than you do.
It's not your insurance man who makes the decision it's the adjusters and the underwriters.
If they deem you intentionally, or unintentionally, violated the NEC you expose yourself to a negotiation to settle your claim.
You have to think about both RF and NEC safety procedures.
Your assertions about RF will fall on deaf ears.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by W5ALF on July 10, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I'm glad your grounding seemed to make a difference for you.
What I have found in my brief time as a HAM is the whole issue of grounding is more "ART" than "Science". If you look around on the forums you'll probably find many tons of verbage about the subject...after reading most of it you'll still be scratching your head as to what to do.
For example when the subject of grounding comes up... are we speaking of electrical ground or RF ground? The 2 or not the same.
When I set up my station I got rather fixated on grounding...thought I had it done and correctly...Then I tried using a digital interface to my rig for psk31 and quickly learned that I somehow had created an RF ground loop...not cool...I have since disconnected all my "grounding".....When I leave the shack I unplug the antenna that is outside my window and up the tree. If I get a stike it will most likely come from the dipole outside.
The radio stays plugged in to the rigrunner and the PS still stays plugged into the 110 on the wall. If you get a direct hit nearby probably nothing is going to save you except luck and living right.
I've talked to many licensed electricians and you get many varied and assorted opinions on what can be done....some I've talked to just shrug there shoulders...this is what I mean about the "art" part of it.
If I had a tower up I'd be much more inclined to pursue it further....I'm sure there is someone who "specializes" in this art form but I'd bet it would be difficult to get them to gurantee there work... for most small home stations I think all you can do is unplug and hope for the best. If you are really worried about it.. get some insurance from ARRL or get a radio rider on your homeowners insurance. My total setup wouldn't add up to $1.5K anyway...hardly worth losing any sleep over.
Just my 2 cents Best to you
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by CBISBACK on July 10, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
W5ALF wtote:
If I had a tower up I'd be much more inclined to pursue it further....I'm sure there is someone who "specializes" in this art form but I'd bet it would be difficult to get them to gurantee there work... for most small home stations I think all you can do is unplug and hope for the best. If you are really worried about it.. get some insurance from ARRL or get a radio rider on your homeowners insurance. My total setup wouldn't add up to $1.5K anyway...hardly worth losing any sleep over.
Just my 2 cents Best to you
========================================================
Another new age ham who doesn't "get it".
While the ham gear won't add up to $1.5K what about:
- Televisions
- Stereo
- heating system
- PC
- fridge
- and
- and
- and
Grounding is indeed a science. If you really want to understand shack (and home) grounding you should consult with Polyphaser, one of the best names in lightning protection products.
As an aside, damage from nearby strikes is many times traced to the telephone line as the source of the surge.
There are no guarantees in life. But you can take precautions to "minimize" your exposure.
Your thinking reminds me of people who say "I don't need health insurance because I'm healthy".
Oh, OK, your homeowners will cover it.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by AA9OC on July 10, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience Lou.
I want to comment on this aspect of your post:
'Much to my surprise I am now able to tune up on ALL bands and my SWRs are much lower? The only conclusion I can make is the new and better ground system I constructed and that I had good connections throughout the station."
This may not be a good sign. If you find that the impedance characteristics of your antenna changes as a result of a change in your ground system at the operating position, this indicates that your equipment chassis and shack wiring are part of a radiating system. This is common when feeding a balanced antenna such as a doublet without an adequate balanced(at antenna)-unbalanced(at transceiver) transition.
If you're interested in investigating this any further you may want to look into a fully balanced twin-lead antenna tuner. If coax must be used then an RF choke at the feed-point and just outside the shack may be an advantage.
All the best,
Anthony
|
| |
|
How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by AI4DG on July 13, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Not a grounding expert, but I'm not sure coiling up the excess wire on your ground connections is a good idea.
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by K8OCL on July 13, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Johnny,
I will bet that what hit Charlie was a common mode surge. This results from a failure to connect the station grounding system via a #10 copper wire to the house electrical main grounding system.
What do you think?
John, K8OCL
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by K8OCL on July 13, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
W5ALF,
Why not just plug your PS into a small UPS. They are not expensive and can protect your equipment, plus allow you to finish a QSO if you unexpected have a loss of power.
Just my $.02 worth (HI)
73, John, K8OCL
|
| |
|
RE: How a Change Made All the Difference
|
|
|
by W5ALF on July 14, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
K8OCL,
Yeah I've thought of a UPS...got 3 of them already for PC's in the house.
Think I'm gonna go to the gel battery and West Mountain PwrGate route instead.
http://www.westmountainradio.com/SuperPWRgate.htm
73
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to discussions on this article.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Related News & Articles
Connectors and Ultrasonic Cleaners
What Happened To The Half Wave Dipole?
Tips for Driving Ground Rods
Varmint Proof Your Antenna
Ground Loops
Other How To Articles
Etch Your Own PC Boards!
The St. Louis Key
Superior Rectifier Upgrades
Beverage Hub Box
Apartments and Antenna Heights
|
