[Elecraft] Automatic lightning protection for radios, .... an off the wall idea

[Jim Brown]

On 1/18/2021 9:12 AM, Rich NE1EE wrote:
> After I installed my ground grid, the last step was to connect to the house grounds. There were 3 of them, and every one was loose on the ground rod. They all appeared to be regulation listed connectors, but poorly installed. Glad I was there to find that.

Electrical wiring, including grounding, was a mess at the home we bought 
in NorCal in 2006. I found multiple mis-wired outlets, including several 
in a laundry room/half kitchen fed by phase (hot) and ground from the 
240V circuit for the adjacent dryer.

That was in a garage/apartment which now houses my shack; power enters 
the house, and is fed to a breaker panel in the second building. The 
house had no ground at all -- a #10-#12 (painted) bare copper wiring ran 
from the service entrance panel to an outlet for a garden hose, which 
was fed by PVC pipe. The ground for the panel in the second building 
wandered from the panel up to and through the attic crawl space to the 
other side of the building, then run neatly down the outside wall next 
to the facings for windows to a ground rod. It was the only ground for 
the entire system.

73, Jim K9YC