[Elecraft] Much OT - No "practical" solution

[John D'Ausilio]

Hi Ken ..

You say "2-wire Romex" .. do you really mean metal-jacketed BX cable?
I just bought a '68 house and that's what's in here, and if that's
what you have you can return ground on the jacket of the cable.

de w1rt/john

On Nov 25, 2007 3:20 PM, Ken Kopp <k0pp at acninc.net> wrote:
> My older home .... built in 1962 by an individual for
> himself ... has only 2-wire Romex.  At least it's not
> single conductor "knob-and-tube wiring.  Nothing in
> the house ...water pump, water heater, forced-air
> heat blower, etc. is "three-wire". (;-(
>
> It's a 2-story structure and it's virtually impossible to
> rewire to meet present-day electrical codes without
> tearing off the interior wallboard and starting over.
>
> The only way I can see to fix the problem would be
> to drill completely through the wall to the outside
> at every outlet and add the "green wire" on the outside
> of the building and return the resulting "buss" to the
> entrance panel's ground.  A decidedly "ugly" solution,
> even if painted to match the exterior color and doesn't
> solve the issue of outlets on interior walls.  I -have-
> replaced all outlets with "3-wire" types to avoid the
> usual cut-off-the ground-pin from household appliance
> plugs, but there's nothing connected to the round
> holes. (;-)
>
> Cutting groves in the wall board from each outlet down
> to the floor and hiding the ground buss under the kick-
> board is possible but again, "ugly".  The walls have
> been painted of course and the kick-boards are stuck
> to the wall by paint.  Removing the kick-boards would
> damage the wallboard and still require its replacement.
>
> There seems to be no realistic solution ...
>
> I built my shack, garage and shop onto the house and
> they -DO- meet all codes.  There is a dediacated breaker
> panel feeding this addition and there are 17 ground rods
> on 2 acres, all bonded together with #10 CU buss wire
> and tied to the RF and AC entrance ground.  Two-inch
> CU strap runs inder the wall into the shack and along
> the back of the desk with 1/4" brass bolts with wing-nuts
> for each piece of equipment.
>
> I'm retired from an electric utility.
>
> 73! Ken Kopp - K0PP
> k0pp at arrl.net
> or
> k0pp at acninc.net
>
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