[HCARC] Grounding Straps For Safety Ground

[Gary and Arlene Johnson]

Kerry,

I understand all except the RF ground part and that only the part at the 
tuner and does it only apply to long wire antennas??  Does anyone use these 
anymore??  How does one get from the average desk height to the floor and 
then out through a wall to a ground rod in much less than 6-10 feet???  I 
might be able to cut it to about 6 feet, but surely not much less than that. 
I will be using both dipoles and verticals and now maybe a beam too due to 
some new info that will help me get antennas up in the air.   I have agreed 
to buy another Hams 72 foot high (only 55 feet high without adding in the 
extra section) telecoping tower.  The tower has a hinged base so when it is 
dropped to approx 20-24 feet can be let down with another winch that comes 
with the tower to eye height with only one person doing the work.  It is a 
guyed tower with 2-3 sets of guys depending on how many sections are in the 
tower when in use.  Now I can get my antennas up where Kerry should agree 
that they can get good radiation patterns.  My neighbor has another tower 
she will give to me for taking it down (and at one time I understood the 
club was going to take it down, but it didn't happen)  that is a permanent 
tower that is about 40 feet high (give or take a foot or ten - it's 4 
sections of triangular tower plus a base section) that I have a place for 
also.  I haven't got the faintest idea what to put up on 2 towers let alone 
one, but at least I have some height to play with.

BTW,  I happen to have a pile of 16-20 thirty foot tall telephone poles of 
which approx 8-10 are surplus to my needs.  They have #6 copper ground wire 
and a copper ground plate on the bottom still on them.  If anyone is 
interested let me know.  Cost as usual is a small donation to the club.  A 
contractor for Bandera electric and the phone company keeps donating them to 
the pile (with my permission) so I never have an accurate count on how many 
there are.  Sunk 2-3 feet into the ground they should make pretty good and 
inexpensive antenna masts.

Gary J
N5BAA
HCARC Secretary (2013)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kerry Sandstrom" <kerryk5ks at hughes.net>
To: "Gary and Arlene Johnson" <qltfnish at omniglobal.net>; 
<hcarc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2012 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: [HCARC] Grounding Straps For Safety Ground


> Gary,
>
> I would use the 3/16 " braid because it is flexible and adequate for a 
> safety ground.  None of your choices is an adequate RF ground as discussed 
> in the past.  If you're using a vertical, the RF ground should be where 
> the antenna base meets the ground.  If you're using a dipole, you don't 
> need an RF ground.  If your using a ground plane (as in 2 meters), you 
> don't need an RF ground.  If you are using a long wire, the RF ground 
> should be at the antenna tuner and it should be much less than a 
> wavelength at the highest frequency you intend to operate and as wide as 
> possible.  Even ten feet is too long for an RF ground at ten meters
>
> Kerry
>
>
>
> -----
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