[Boatanchors] RE: Grounding

[Dave Maples]

All: The neutral and ground are to be bonded together at the first point of
disconnect per the National Electric Code or NEC (which most local
jurisdictions pick up without modification).  For residential service that
is sometimes the meter base and is sometimes the load center (i.e. breaker
panel).

The comment about bonding neutral and ground together elsewhere is a good
one.  That should be avoided.

The idea of having a ground rod separate from the AC main ground rod is
unwise.  I work for Nextel in engineering, and one of the things I am
responsible for is grounding of our cell sites.  In those sites we ensure
that the power ground at the cell site, the telco ground, and the ground for
the antenna arrestors are, if not on the same master ground bar, tightly
bonded together.  We also place an arrestor on EVERY lead entering the
shelter, aand bond those arrestors tightly to the master ground bar.  We
ground coax cables to antenna supports (i.e. towers) at several places.  We
have ground rings around towers with multiple connections to the tower legs,
and multiple ground rods bonded to the ring.  These ground rings are bonded
to a ground ring around the shelter or cabinet, which in turn has multiple
ground rods bonded to it as well.  That may sound like considerable work but
it pays off over and over again even if we take direct hits (and our sites
do, just like other folks' sites).

There are numerous good standards on grounding of radio equipment, but we
have generally followed Motorola R-56 (kinda natural, since Nextel uses
Motorola iDEN equipment).  R-56 generally tracks with similar standards from
other cellular carriers and LMR equipment manufacturers..  It has an
extensive standard for grounding.  IEEE also has a good book on grounding as
well.

For what it's worth...all replies welcome, of course.

Dave WB4FUR

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><SNIP>
>Is there any situation when it would not be advisable to use
>the 3-wire cord on test equipment or ham gear?
>73, Dick KF4NS


I'm sure everyone knows this, but DEFINITELY do not use three wire cords on
the AC type AM broadcast radios.  Thats the only thing that comes to
mind..........   I have my shack wired to a ground rod that is separate from
my house AC wiring.

Just my 2 cents...

73,
Keith,  KK5FE

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