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Legend
Junior Member
Username: Legend
Post Number: 36
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 9:53 pm: | 
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What is the best wire to ground my station with?
1) A flat braided strap
2) A heavy gauge wire (2 or 4)
And if I use round cable, should I use single conductor, or multi-stranded? If I use multi-stranded, should I use thicker strands, or very fine strands?
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Ca346
Advanced Member
Username: Ca346
Post Number: 691
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 11:03 pm: |
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Both. I use #6/8 in the house from equipment to the ground bar outside on the wall, then flat braid (1") over to the ground rod. |
Buck
Advanced Member
Username: Buck
Post Number: 865
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 6:47 am: |
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If you have any old rg-8 coax laying around....strip the braid out of it. It makes great a ground strap. I used some out of rg-11 and it works great
Buck |
Tech833
Moderator
Username: Tech833
Post Number: 637
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 5:32 pm: |
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Solid copper strap is best for an RF ground path. Just about anything will work for a static drain. |
Legend
Junior Member
Username: Legend
Post Number: 39
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 6:00 pm: |
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Since I'm not real sure about how to get a flat braided cable through a small round hole in my wall, how about some small diameter copper tubing? There is a a lot more surface area compared to a cable of the same diameter. |
Tech833
Moderator
Username: Tech833
Post Number: 638
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 7:09 pm: |
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Copper tubing would be my second choice. |
Legend
Junior Member
Username: Legend
Post Number: 40
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 4:58 am: |
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Cool... Thanks...
I picked up some 3/8 copper tubing today. It will only be about a three foot run from the big copper junction fastened to the ground lug on the back of my tube type amp to the eight foot copper rod just inches outside my radio room.
Do you think it will be OK to use that big copper lug I have attached at the back of my amp as the central ground point for all of my equipment instead of running a ground from the amp to a bus with everything else? That way, I can keep the run from the amp to the ground as short as possible. In essence, the copper ground lug attached to the brass stud on the back of the amp will be my "bus".
Someone on this forum gave me a good idea for preserving the integrity of the actual ground connection against eventual corrosion. I will be burying a jar of vaseline which will contain the junction of my copper tubing and my ground rod with a ground clamp. I think that should keep the connection good for many years! |
Gezus306
Junior Member
Username: Gezus306
Post Number: 49
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 12:10 pm: |
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8 OR 10FT ELECTRICAL GROUNDING COPPER RODS.
12 OR 14 GAGAE HOUSE HOLD WIRE ( OR BRADED COPPER
IF YOU CAN FIND SOME FORM OF LONG ENOUGH lengths)
You need to watch the length fron main ground
area by the radios to the actual grounding by the rods. Could becuase of the length of solid length turn into an automatic antt.
I would use a 3/4 diam. copper pipe under the radio bench, ground ALL units to it then from that pipe to the main ground system set up. |
Tech833
Moderator
Username: Tech833
Post Number: 640
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 9:26 pm: |
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Legend,
Using the equipment as a bus is not the greatest idea. Running the copper pipe along the back of the bunch of equipment and using seperate copper wires to bond each to the copper tubing would be better.
Burying a jar of Vaseline? That is the first time I ever heard of that. Sounds a little like voodoo to me. Why not just use Penetrox on the joint and spray the whole thing with Spray Galv when finished? Nobody with make fun of you that way. |
Legend
Junior Member
Username: Legend
Post Number: 41
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 4:01 am: |
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It was just a dollar and 50 cents for a jar of Vaseline.
Penetrox? Spray Galv? I can't find any. I live in a small town. I'd have to order it from a Ham equipment retailer and pay more, plus for shipping. I very much doubt that too many people will laugh at a jar of Vaseline buried about a foot underground. LOL...
I think it will work just great at keeping corrosion from occuring at the connection. Don't you? And at $1.50, I can't beat the price. It wasn't my idea, it was someone on this forum, but I think it's a good one. Ya just drill a hole in the bottom for the rod, and a hole in the cap for the Copper tubing to enter. Then, just bury it. I very much doubt that any water or soil will find it's way past that self-contained glob-o-goo.
As far as grounding the equipment goes, here's the situation:
Everything is on my desk right in front of me, except the tube type, which is on a seperate stand just to the right of the desk, between it (the desk), and the wall.
Firstly, I dont much like having a tube type RF amp right in my face (Strong RF and all), and second, I want the amp to be as close to the actual ground rod as possible. If I were to add a bus to the back of my desk, I would then have to LENGTHEN the path to ground for the amp, and also end up using a thinner conductor from the amp to the bus, instead of hooking my 3/8 copper tubing right to the copper lug attached to my ground stud on the amp.
It just seems to me that the amp itself is the most important piece of equipment to have a very good (and short) RF drain on, but I could be very wrong... I dunno.
It just seems counterproductive to run an additional (somewhat thinner) length of wire back on itself, in the other direction from the rod, toward the bus on the back of the desk. What is wrong with using the large copper lug attached to the back of the amp as the "common point"? It's really no further from the radio and meter, ect... than a copper bus would be on the back of my desk.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't many knowledgable people recommend using your antenna tuner as a "common point" to ground everything at? Well, I don't have an antenna tuner, so wouldn't my amp, or TVI filter attached to the back of it make the best place for a "common point" ground" for everything to attach to, and then follow the thick copper tubing straight to ground?
Gezus306 said:
"You need to watch the length fron main ground
area by the radios to the actual grounding by the rods. Could becuase of the length of solid length turn into an automatic antt."
Yes... I realize this, but something has always perplexed me about this. Seems to me, that avoiding any 1/4 wave length (or more) of TOTAL RF path (equipment to bus to wire to groundstrap) should be the primary objective.
After all, doesn't ALL the wire and conductors (bus included) between the equipment (such as radio) and the point where the rod enters the ground, turn into an RF radiator at a 1/4 wave multiple (or greater)?
With EVERY length of ground path included, I would venture to say that keeping it under 8 feet is not done very often by very many people.
With the way mine will be set up, my amp and TVI filter will be approx. 3 and 1/2 feet from the outside rod, and my radio and meter will be approx. 5 feet of TOTAL distance from the rod. I do not see how I could do much better than that.
If I have a wire running from my radio, to a bus, and THEN to my ground rod, it will be a wonderful 27 Mhz antenna at right around 8 or 9 feet of TOTAL RF pathway to ground. That is something I definitely wish to avoid.
Like I said earlier, I could certainly be wrong. I am just saying what makes the most sense to me.
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Dindin
Member
Username: Dindin
Post Number: 66
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 10:02 pm: |
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Legend,it looks like two different aspects are getting mixed ,rf ground and dc ground,check out this link it may either answer some of your questions or it may add to the confusion;
http://www.radioworks.com/nbgnd.html |
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