[Elecraft] Proper grounding for P3.

[David Olean]

Don, Dave et al,

Thanks for all the tips. I was really just wondering about where to 
drill holes in the P3, or if it should be bonded at all. I have been 
doing much reading on removing common mode signals and was happily on my 
way to achieving that with numerous lossy ferrite chokes at strategic 
spots.  The idea to daisy chain the bonding wire between "boxes" to 
minimize ground loops seems like a good one too. I will revise my 
grounding.  My goal was to make the ham shack as safe as possible for 
lightning protection, but the impetus for the project was discovering 
that common mode signals were creeping in on all my beverage feedlines.  
There are really two different situations that are being addressed.  
Reading ON4UN's book (The latest revision) was an eye opener as far as 
how common mode signals can mess up a beverage installation. Following 
his advice, I have made good strides in stripping unwanted noise from my 
feed lines.  I am bonding my station ground rods with the power entry 
panel ground as well.  That will  be an expensive undertaking as they 
are quite far apart. I am not looking forward to making the trench to 
bury the wire.

Thanks again. I'll bite the bullet, drill a hole in the P3 and hope that 
it does not interfere with the yet un announced Elecraft P3 Cappuccino 
machine option.

Dave K1WHS


On 3/28/2018 9:08 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
> David,
>
> If your goal is to reduce noise, hum, and buzz  in your station, then ---
> much better than "grounding", use the "Bonding" techniques suggested 
> (and tested) in K9YC's information on the subject.
> Basically, you bond from enclosure to enclosure with braid or heavy 
> wire - follow along the path of connecting audio cables and coax.  
> When you finally get to the end of the path (amplifier or tuner), then 
> you can connect to your station ground.  Connecting each piece of 
> equipment separately to the station ground can actually make the hum, 
> noise, and buzz pickup worse.
>
> You are NOT grounding for RF, but for lightning and AC mains 
> protection for you and your family and pets.
> Mother Earth is not a SINK for RF - that is what common mode chokes on 
> the coax are for, use effective ones.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>
> On 3/28/2018 2:54 PM, David Olean wrote:
>> I have been rebuilding my little hamshack these last few days. I am 
>> only operating on one band (160M) so there is not much gear involved, 
>> but I am trying to do it all correctly to minimize noise pickup from 
>> common mode signals arriving in the shack from many RG-6 beverage 
>> feed lines. Most of my work is outdoors preventing common mode noise 
>> from propagating along the RG-6 coax.  To help things along inside 
>> the shack, I have installed a large copper buss bar with numerous 
>> attachment points for wide braid connections to all the AC powered 
>> equipment on the operating bench plus anything else that has RF or 
>> audio involved.  I have bonded everything to this buss bar and have 
>> routed a couple of #8 ground wires in conduit from the buss down to 
>> two ground rods situated below the shack. I have a separate ground 
>> rod about 25 ft away for grounding the beverage feed lines.   I noted 
>> that several shack items had no provision for grounding.  One of them 
>> was the P3 panadaptor. 
>