Water Pipe Ground?

[KB3UZF]

I have a cold water pipe running through my shack on the ceiling.  It is approx 15-20 ft. from where the pipe enters the house.  I noticed that my service panel (on the other side of the house) has a connection to the cold water pipe.

I have some questions. 

A.  Is it ok (for a good ground) to connect my MFJ tuner, HF rig, etc to the cold water pipe?
B.  Would it be better to put a 6ft ground rod outside my shack (exterior wall is only 12ft away)?
c.  Would there be a benefit to putting a 6ft ground rod outside my shack, connecting it to my cold water pipe, AND then to my equipment (basically 2 ground sources connected together THEN to the equipment)
D.  In anycase, what gauge wire should I use between the equipment grounding posts and the ground source??  My MFJ has a wingnut ground post, and the ICOM i'm getting has a ground attachment post.  Do these need to be 6GA wire??  Can I use the copper ground from som 12/2 romex?

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks

W3KRZ (vanity,  AKA  WB3UZF)

Larry

[K3GM]

Here's a similar question asked recently on another forum here that might be of help to you:
http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php/topic,70363.0.html

This site will give you perhaps the best advice you can find:
http://www.w8ji.com/ground_systems.htm

[KH6DC]

Here's my recent experience with connecting the RF ground to a cold water pipe.  It was convenient -15 feet away and I used a MFJ Artificial Ground between the station and cold water pipe to tune it.  What it did was RF came back and overdrove the linear, an Ameritron AL811 where people couldn't hear me plus couldn't get more than 200 watts out even with the antenna matched for low SWR.

reconected the ground to an existing 8 foot ground rod connected to the electrical load center.  Now people can hear me solid copy and wattmeter shows 600W out.  An 8 foot ground rod pounded into the ground is the best rf ground compared to the cold water pipe.

Why'd I did it?  Was a rental, hopefully we're not here longer than 1 year plus I was lazy and wanted to get on the air.  Bad choice and it went against my better judgement.

[KX8N]

My advice is that the only thing that should be connected to a cold water pipe is a faucet, toilet, or hot water tank.

[AA4PB]

Code requires that metal water pipes be connected to the service entrance panel ground to ensure that the two can never be at a different potential creating a shock hazard if someone should touch an electical appliance while having one hand on a water faucet. The panel still requires a ground rod outside to provide the system ground.

You should NOT connect to the water pipe for your station's ground. It should go directly to a ground rod but (by code) this ground must also be connected to the service entrance panel ground. All grounds in a building must be "bonded" together.

[K9KJM]

AA4PB is correct.

ALL grounds need to be bonded together. Electric power entrance, Telco, CATV, Hamshack, Metalic plumbing, etc.

AFTER each has gone to it's own ground rod(s) first.

[K4RKY]

Cold water pipes are not recommended. Consider the home construction and remember most homes now days don't use copper beyond the foundation, usually pvc to the meter and usually pvc is used for the main line(in warmer climates) on the right of way(not always but typical) They do use copper to connect the meter to the main mostly.
Galvanized pipes almost don't exist except in older homes.
Use the ground rod at the utility meter or put a ground rod near the shack .