[Elecraft] Confessions of grounding

[Gary Smith]

I too have paid attention to Jim, K9YC's 
advice. Nobody knows it all but he's 
proven to know enough to be an authority 
on the subject so I listen to what he has 
to say.

To that end, I have put in a lot of effort 
to have the Antennas, roof tripod and 
breaker box tied together with #4 solid 
copper wire. Antennas & Rx antennas are 
connected via Polyphaser to the 8' ground 
rod outside the shack.

The #4 ground wire snakes in under the 
door jamb and terminates on a piece of 
flat stock 6" long. I drilled 8 1/4" holes 
in that and have SS 1/4" bolts nutted down 
tight and use the 8 bolts as anchor points 
for the equipment. 

I have #6 insulated copper wire attached 
to the K3, P3, Alpha amp, 6M amp, NCC-2 
and Green Heron Controller. I yet need to 
ground the computer, antenna switch, HI-Z 
controllers and the Iota DLS-55 power 
supply. I also need to find the best way 
to ground the control wires to the rotor, 
the HI-Z cables and the remote coax 
switch.

Braid is much easier to use but since 
things don't get moved much, I bent the 
copper wire to fit the device to the table 
and being ground wire, I like the idea of 
solid wire & I wanted shielded so it 
doesn't inadvertently touch improperly 
down the line and create a ground loop. I 
could have used coax as ground but it 
wouldn't bend well and would always be a 
PITA to deal with.

One thing for sure, I like how consistent 
things seem to be when everything is 
grounded. More, I feel much safer now.

73,

Gary, KA1J

> Hi Lee,
> 
> When I got my K3 I rebuilt my shack from teh ground up, starting with
> the ground, with an eye to reduction of RFI.  I took a lot of Jim's,
> suggestions, and I lost about 2 S units of noise.  That process is
> detailed here:
> 
> https://www.nk7z.net/rebuilding-the-shack/
> 
> 73s and thanks,
> Dave (NK7Z/NNR0DC)
> https://www.nk7z.net
> ARRL Technical Specialist
> ARRL Volunteer Examiner
> ARRL OOC for Oregon