[Boatanchors] Grounding

[Dave Maples]

All: John's made a good comment, but ONLY if you have done the correct thing
and bond your station ground system to the power ground.  If not, a risk
remains.

The reason this is correct (besides all the power-related safety stuff) is
that if you sustain a surge on either antenna or power cabling, there won't
be circulating currents on the cables connecting the gear to power and
antennas.  This is the way the commercial folks keep their stuff running
during storms.  Everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) gets bonded to a
common ground point.

It's not that hard.  I spent about 4 hours on a Saturday many years ago
putting in 4 ground rods and a #6 AWG copper wire from the power ground
around the house to the point where my shack riser (I'm on the second floor)
leaves.  I just cleaned and rebonded everything last spring--put No-Ox on
the connections to ensure that I didn't get problems later on.  It's cheap
protection for both the ham shack AND the entertainment gear and appliances
in the house.

Thanks for the bandwidth.

Dave WB4FUR
  -----Original Message-----
  From: W4AWM at aol.com [mailto:W4AWM at aol.com]
  Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 9:31 PM
  To: dsmaples at comcast.net
  Cc: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
  Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Grounding


  In a message dated 7/24/2006 19:54:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
dsmaples at comcast.net writes:


    << It's also a good idea to check the ground pins with an ohmmeter from
time to
    time, particularly if the cord is pulled on a lot.  I remember an X-ray
from
    a while back clearly showing the pulled-loose ground pin in a molded
cable. >>



  This is exactly why a separate ground should be used in addition to the 3
wire line cord.  I have seen many of the grounding prongs pull out of what
appeared to be a good plug. If you have a bad cord and care to take a look
at the prong, you will find that in most cases, the metal contact attached
to the prong is very narrow and can easily be broken but remain undetected.

  73,

  John,  W4AWM