I figured I would hook up my old CB radio at home. 20 video's later I am realizing everything this project is going to require. What went from let me hook up the old CB at home went to I need a base station antenna, a new CB, new mic, grounding rods, mounting materials, wires, and support guy wires with stakes. Typical project done correctly !
Thank! As a licensed electrician I see and hear all kinds of silliness regarding grounding. I am going to refer your video anytime I am asked about this subject. All of your information is spot on!
Dave--I've watched your videos with interest and much admiration. You have an excellent teaching style, and your explanations are clear, concise, and free of minutiae that get in the way of knowledge transfer. The production values of your videos are also superior. This was one of the clearest, most lucid explanations of a difficult topic that I've seen. Can you believe that yours is the first description I've seen that notes that the bus-bar IS a single point ground, and not multiple points? The controversy over multiple loops being created when grounding to a single bar seems to be settled here; as you say, the ARRL published specs call that bunk. On another note, I watched your videos as I studied for my Extra, and over the course of a week went from deciding to upgrade from General to a 49/50 on my Extra exam. Your videos provided excellent clarification of difficult topics. I thank you, and eagerly look forward to seeing much more from you! 73, Mark KD8EDC
+Chad Smith Congrats, Chad. I am averaging 85% on my Extra Cass tests, without using my calculator half the time, and >95% when I use it. So I will have my certificate of passing on the 16th, and my Extra within 10 days of that. 73, Seth, KI7AQJ I am gettin me a vanity call sign. Haven't decided on something cool sounding in CW Morse ,or just something cool.
@@davecasler I'm new to ham radio I'm working on getting my license I'm currently erecting a tower I've read the NEC about grounding but I have a question about grounding my coax do I use a ground rod that is isolated and dedicated for the coax from everything else or does it still need to be tied in with the rest of the grounds around the whole house including the ones that you use to ground the tower
Hello Dave. The NEC has changed since you produced this well done episode. All grounding on a premises must connect to the UFER or electrical ground at the power panel now as you know. This episode will make HAM's install a ground rod for their station only with no connection to the UFER grounding system which is a code violation. Thanks Dave for your work.
Upgraded to my General a year ago, finally getting an HF set up. Was ready to buy everything and realized I didn't have a plan to ground my station. Shelved the project for a month. Watched this video and feel confident to get started again!
I may have missed it but did you mention that the ground needs to connect to the main service entrance ground? That’s a very important point to make. Too many hams just add a ground rod for their radio and do not connect their ground rod to the service entrance ground rod. The ground potential at one ground rod can be very different than at another ground rod during a surge or nearby lightning strike! In recent years new houses all seem to have a place (terminal strip) where this connection to the service ground can easily be made.
Dave! So many people share so many confusing and over complicated information on grounding. Your video is fabilous and every single time I need to revisit grounding and other concepts your videos are my go to place to refresh!
This is a A+ Presentation. If you have a ground rod for your antenna's make sure you run a ground wire # 4 or #8 bare wire depending on your service panel from your antenna ground and your service panel ground because you can get a ground fault between the two grounds. You will be trying to balance between the two grounds through your third ground house plug wiring in your interior radio equipment ground. If you loose your service panel ground everything in your house will be grounding through tour radio station and the third ground on your plug will not be big enough to handle it. If you experience light bulbs burning out more than often that could be a sign of a poor ground at the service panel. You would be surprised what dishonest people do. I found at my brothers house the ground rod was two feet long it should have been eight feet and I complained to the county building department when checking other houses all were like that, The electrical contractor made four ground rods out of one. Regards; Phil WW5D
I grounded to an old steel gas line network, and I mean an old "abandoned" gas line, with a wood plugs in it, and "no gas". Super great grounding!!!! The new gas line is plastic inside plastic with a metal tracer wire for a locator to get a signal from. The old gas lines run all over the place, but there is no gas in them. I had someone come out and scope the sewer lines, the new and the old gas line looking for accidental cross bores through other pipes. So that has been double checked, but i was not to concerned or I'd have never done it in the first place.
I've used 10' 1" electrical conduit as a ground rod. I wak it down with a fence post driver. I drill a hole in the end, then bolt the wire to the conduit with ss bolts, washers, and nuts. And I've used ss hose clamps too. I used a panel box neutral bus bar for all the ham shack ground wires.
I have been a Ham Operator for just over 25 years and on CB Radio since 1965 and I have never once grounded my station and have not had issues.I see it as a total waste of time,effort,& money.I am happy for you that feel the need for it so have fun and 73.
I operated for many years without worrying about grounding. Where I am now I've found that grounding helps reduce common-mode noise. Plus we have lots of lightning here, so I feed all my feedlines through lightning surge arrestors for piece of mind. It won't survive a direct strike, but it's something.
An excellent article Dave the only comment I would make is that the deeper you can get your RF ground rods the better and that if you add additional ground rods to your SEPARATE house wiring safety earth that you will likely improve the signal to noise levels at the receiver
Leaving things disconnected all the time is an excellent idea. That's what I do. During the summer we have "popcorn" thunderstorms that just "pop up" in minutes and if I'm not home it can cause bad things to happen. Back in they day (tube radios) we used to string several neon lamps in series as a "spark gap." They would clamp at about 250V which was good for low power transmitters and most tube type rigs could handle that type of surge in through the antenna. I'll second that "don't use solder" for your ground!
I truly appreciate how well you teach these topics. The clarity you bring is amazing. Another great source of information about grounding and bonding is the Mike Holt forums and training videos. A key takeaway that I've noticed is "grounding" often misrepresented or under represented, especially the safety ground. In fact the term "ground" gets used to mean so many things it can becomes unclear for some people. An important fact is that ground rods that meet the NEC simply cannot conduct enough current to clear a fault. The code calls for 25 ohms. This simply isn't enough to trip the smallest branch circuit breaker. the bonding of the green wire to neutral at the service entrance gives the "ground" the current capacity to return the voltage to source, trip the breaker and clear the fault. I watched a Mike Holt video where he and his team were showing how to test a ground system and how different soil types require different techniques to achieve the NEC ideal 25 ohms. Also, the lighting taking the path of least resistance is often said, but Kirchhoff's laws teach us that lighting takes all paths, the least resistance of course gets the most current. I understand lighting doesn't turn corners very well either. I've been studying for my extra and find your videos extremely helpful. 73, Phil, KC7SVI
Lightning strike? Listen to this one! The storm had been going for about 45 minutes and was the most intensive lightning storm I had ever heard. This is the most "dynamic" portion of the storm, DIRECT STRIKES! The sounds were so loud, probably 30 db above what it could handle, that they clipped the digital recording. The first direct strike, about 1:10 melted the Dacron guy wires on my 30 meter vertical. The guys popped like a rubber band and, bringing an insulator with one of them and struck a window. You an hear the glass breaking. I quickly went to the side door to look outside just in time for two direct strikes at about 1:43 (I was blinded and my ears were ringing for several minutes). Then to add insult to injury another strike came at 1:53 which melted the CPVC insulating section at the base and down it came. When I dug up the coax there was no copper, after cutting it lengthwise I found that the center conductor was nothing but little beads of copper. How do you protect against this? You can't. 100 million volts at 500 thousand amps is going to do damage. Putting the end of our coax inside of a glass bottle isn't going to help either. That lightning came miles to get to your antenna and a few millimeters of glass isn't going to stop it. The best protection for your rigs during a storm like this is to put them back into the original box and slide them under your bed. :) Just disconnect everything and pile it in the center of the room far away from electrical outlets and antenna connections. Did I lose equipment? Yes, everything, rigs, power supplies, computer, oscilloscopes, just about every piece of test equipment in the room...including the little MFJ battery powered clock. It was as if I was standing on the bridge of the U.S.S Enterprise with the Klingons attacking. Hear it for yourself, this was around October of 2010. The entire recording was about two hours and thirty minutes long. This is the two minute highlight, no editing except to just give the two and a half minutes of heart stopping lightning strikes. It was what we called a "four kid storm." That means four of my kids came and wanted to get in bed with us. www.eaglecreekobservatory.org/hamradio/sounds/storm.mp3
Appreciate this video, David. During a recent wind and sleet storm, I experienced some heavy static build up in my homemade 2M ground plane antenna which I had hooked up to my cheap HT. Even though I was still getting acceptable SWRs, I decided to disconnect until after the static danger was gone. This was no simple shock like you get walking around in your socks on a carpet floor and touching your wife's nose, you know because they love that,,, this was a seriously painful shock with a much larger spark. After the wind and moisture subsided, I took a chance and touched the coax connector, and the static was gone, so I hooked back up and the system works great. All that said, I'm about to set up my first real, non-HT dual band in my office/shack and I want to make sure I've got everything grounded properly. I built a new and improved Dual Band antenna, which I plan to tune once everything is installed and grounded properly. Thanks for the education. I did go ahead and subscribe to your channel for more than one reason. Most importantly, the education I receive by watching your videos, secondarily, I'm a old Son of the the Colorful State; grew up in the Springs. Blessings, my friend. Thanks again for the video. KI5CSQ
Thank you David, I’m an electrician, I’v tried to to do this exact explanation to a couple of my friends. Their are a few points they resist agreeing with. Anyway they accept the important ones, but are bent on doing some over-kills ( like 3 g/rods for a triangular tower). l will recommend, this chapter of yours to these guys. Thanks again, W2alx.
I agree, good video and presentation, but what kinda frustates me is the varying of opinions... I just watched another video on grounding a few weeks ago by a well know Extra and he's of the school that you need the three+ ground rods around the tower. Also, the ARRL grounding and bonding book has this as well... Not trying to insult anyone, they all know more than me, by far...
HAM radio in about 1950 SAW changes in some control of the plugs and sockets that used to be so dependably standard. But plug and socket I missed the most and still retained only on the back of the high gain rotor control box is a cinch- jones multi pIn plug and socket. It is extremely rugged, of power level for ham radio easily, and it even has a strain relief on the plug cap. If you want to run anything in ham radio with plugs and sockets try to find some Cinch Jones brand units that will do your job very well. Many ham radios have gone downhill to use the nylon multi pIn 12 Volt plug in socket on the back of new radios the pain of every real hams existence ARE the DIN plugs and sockets which came into use because of some misguided engineer somewhere IN manufacturing specifications. The way to soldier a small piece of wire to the little pIn is to use your hot iron to heat the WIRE and use the WIRE to supply heat as you touch they connection with tiny diameter soldering wire. Even though sockets for headphones are now minie-size, one holdover on ham radio is the use of the two conductor quarter-inch phone plug for plugging in a CW code key. how has that ONE item held on?
Good info Dave. Thank you. Far too many hams either ignore grounding all together, or worse, listen to a bunch of nonsense about it and act on it. I run all of the gear in my station through a single AC power bus strip that's easy to reach. In addition to being able to unplug my whole station with a single plug when I leave the room or hear thunder, I know that it causes all of my gear's grounds to be tied closer to one another to help minimize ground loops. I've seen some real problems caused by interconnected gear that was plugged into outlets that were on 2 different house circuits. As for antenna grounds, I've found that if I'm running low frequency antennas it's best to use an individual (virgin) ground directly below the antenna, as a common ground will feed noise from elsewhere back into the antenna, and I like to use a 1 to 1 transformer at the antenna to decouple DC between the antenna and the station, and I ground the coax shield for that antenna right where it comes into the house, again with its own isolated ground. Grounds for low frequency antenna systems can take some real playing with in order to really cut down the noise. But it's time well spent, as you can remove a whole lot of endless noise (several dB) with an effective ground.
What a fantastic series. im learning new things and building on known information. As a new foundation level (UK) amateur i find all information invaluable but the relaxed and layman way that you address your audience is great. thx and i look forward to the rest of your videos. 73's
Dave, Thank you for your episode on grounding. Do you have one that covers second story station setup? All I hear/read about is short line to ground and 8 ft rod - over and over. Which is fine to drive in the point if someone has that option. But my "shack" has to be in the second story of the house and lava rock is only a foot or two beneath the surface. At a previous house, I was able to put the shack on the ground floor and run a strap out the the rod just outside a window. But it was more "Rods" because I was barely able to put one in at a 3 to 4 foot depth before hitting rock - so I put in three short rods and connected them together. But in this house, I'm on the second floor and given the window's orientation any ground wire would need to make several bends and would probably be 30 ft long. My transceiver is plugged into an MFJ filtered power strip that's plugged into the way with the PS plugged into the same strip. The HF antenna is just a long wire (vertical) going to 4:1 balan (or UNUN) hot lead with above ground radials going to the ground terminal and coax from there - with some wound around and air core for a choke - to the shack. I want to do better but any "ground" lead would probably be longer than the wire antenna itself. What do the second story (and higher) guys do?
Good job. I special ordered a 10' 3/4" rod for the base of the tower, then ran #2 copper THHN along with the coaxs into the shack to a ground buss (common point) with a #6 from the that to one of my 2 ground rods for the electrical service. Glad to see we agree on all aspects. I run everything on 12 vdc (mobiles) and the only issue is mobiles don't usually have ground posts. They are negative ground which means the SO-239 is connected to the (-) negative. A barrel connector with a ground lug comes in handy when transitioning from hardline or LMR400 to lets say 8x for a short hook up jumper. 73
Hi Dave, Loved your video and i think there is Never Enough emphasis put into this area of Amateur Radio. My call sign in VO1VXC. I work for Bell Canada as a Business Services Communications Technician but worked as an Electrician prior to taking this posting. I am a Journeyman Electrician with Red Seals in both Construction and Industrial Electrical. I have installed many grounding grids for Xfmr pads, Communication Towers and Building systems. Cad Welding (Therm-it Weld) is the Preferred method of Bonding grounding systems together and mechanical splicing is more common for the ancillary devices. Cad Welding fuses the copper to copper in one joint as you know and the success rate is very high. I always tell everyone that "All Points must remain equal" in a grounding system and bigger is better when referring to copper bonding, IE Buss Bars, Copper Strap, Grounding Braid and bonding jumpers. The Electrical Code in Canada has "lightened up" on the size of copper conductor required for station electrical grounding and what once was a #1AWG for a 200A Residential Service is now a #6AWG. Again, thru non-destructive and destructive testing, it was determined #6AWG would be sufficient to carry any and all of the unbalanced load in an open neutral fault. Again, Bigger is better and there is Never enough emphasis on the importance of proper grounding for Amateur Radio installations. Tower grounding is essential for the safety of lightning strikes as you pointed out, but the Bonding has to remain from these points to all points in the system. Grounding at the base of the tower could and should be as simple as 3 / 6ft copper ground rods driven 5 ft away from the three corners of tower base and bonding jumpers from each leg to each ground rod. I always bond my ground rods with a jumper to make a circle or loop. A Junction Box at the tower base with Static Discharge protection can and would be bonded to this ground rod installation. A #6 Bonding jumper could and should be ran towards the shack and to the Main Electrical Ground Bonding of the Residence. Again, if this ground is difficult or doesn't seem to be adequate, additional ground rods can be driven to ensure the Main Electrical Ground is maintained. Here in Canada, 3 - 8ft ground rods are driven and they are spaced 10 ft apart and joined with UN-insulated #6AWG ground wire and are tied to the First point of disconnect in the Building or residence. Depending on the size of service. this could be a Main Switch or a combination Meter Base and mains disconnect but in any event, tied to the Neutral Point at that place. Station Bonding / Grounding would and should tie to this Main electrical ground by means of a "Split- Bolt" or Burndy mechanical connection to a Ground Buss, whereby Ground Tails can be attached to the station devices. Amateur Radio Operators not familiar with proper grounding should consult a local electrician and should actually have an electrician come by just to "Sign-off" on any issues or questionable areas. Installing Towers, Antennas and leads from these devices into your house, invites mother nature into your home and if not properly done, could result in catastrophic results. There has been some discussion as well regarding installing the Ground Electrodes in the concrete base before the pouring of the concrete and it is in my opinion to keep those electrodes out of the concrete base and the bonding jumpers on the surface to the proper attachment points. Concrete bases have been reported to "Split" if a direct hit occurs to a tower and proper dissipation into the ground away from the tower base would be the best result. I also have a Ground Conductor that runs down the outside of my 50ft tower away from my Entrance coax and this bonds devices like antenna masts, Rotor frame, Top section of the tower and my home made "Lightning Dissipation Sphere". All connections are spayed with "Glyptol" and essentially protected from corrosion which exists very highly up this way. Best 73 and thanks for allowing my comments.
Many thanks for your very understandable and concise presentation. I just passed my tech and general and am waiting on my call sign. Armed with this information and your reference recommendations I have more confidence that I can properly ground and shield my QTH.
Dave, you're a natural born teacher. Your examples & delivery is impeccable and so easy to comprehend! I can't wait to dive into your channel. -'73 man! \m/ ô¿ô \m/
RF grounding an essential requirement for all ham stations....unfortunately many of us give least priority.....as u said a dedicated grounding for ham shack a MUST...i will do it immediately tnx David 73 de vu2chr murthy Murthy
Great video! My electrician is running my three (3) LMR 400 coax cables up my wall, into my attic and outside tomorrow. He is also going to pull a 6 gauge solid copper ground wire and hook it up to my service panel ground.
Dave, your videos are really good on HAMs. One small correction at you video time lapse 2:55 onwards, here is the Main 2 line Neutral wire is never connected to the Home Earth Ground which is Green wire. The electrical device’s body if it has a 3 pin plug, one is Line, second is Neutral that connects to the electrical mains supply and the middle bigger pin is the Earthing which goes to your building’s Green wire called as earthing. The middle Green wire connects to the device’s metal cabinet. It’s good to have earthing for PCs/HAM Radios as not to have a minor shock or hum or in MacBooks that give tingling buzz on the palms. Here the unwanted leakage electric current goes into ground and is a safe feature. Sorry that I was bit skeptical initially but thought to convey the connection points of the Ground and Neutral wire, never meet. Their electrical characteristic called as port is different.
My 8 foot ground rod showed spiraling patterns of corrosion when I pulled it out to move. It looked pretty wild. It was clearly green corrosion on the copper, spiraling down the rod.
GROUND LOOPING GROUND RODS: We all stayed home for Field Day, I used our club’s vertical. I also hammered in a ground rod to connect my rig’s ground terminal to it. Found at later that’s a big no-no and I had set myself up for a ground loop: because the rig was plugged into house current which is already grounded to a rod behind the breaker box. Using this second ground rod meant that, because the ground voltages would be different from the house ground and this one I just hammered in for the day, I could’ve ended up with a ground loop. Although your video is helpful- it touched on ground loops only in your shack and nowhere else. Or is the information I got about my situation wrong? Anyway, glad I didn’t blow anything up! It is, after all. “Amateur Radio!” N9DMS
Ground loops are not a safety thing and nothing will blow up, but if the length of a loop is resonant at one of your operating frequencies, you may get a high SWR or find RF on the surface of the radio or key or microphone. I had that on 15 meters when my station grounding went through the wall to a ground rod. I had to lengthen the wire to fix it. It was all the way around the house to the main AC panel with a concrete driveway in between, so bonding my station ground to the mains ground was not an option. Also, if you have a rig, amplifier, and tuner, each grounded to your station ground, sometimes you have to use ferrites on the coax between the units to break the circular RF path on the outside of the coax.
Talk about heat from lighting! I live in South Florida, lighting Capital! Sandy soil and a good lighting hit can make Glass from the sand! I have seen it many times. It is a good idea to check your ground rods from time to time! I know some that go out and hit there ground rod with a hammer from time to time, to break up any glass formed on it. I will not say this works or not. But if you think you got a hit check your ground! If you are not sure put in another ground rod near but maybe 3 to 6 inches from the first one. I have seen where there was ground rods every foot around the wall all connected together with large cable! And have seen fuses not just blown but blown up! Lighting does what it wants to do! If you don't like that To Bad! Nothing will stop lighting! The only thing you can do is to give it a easy way to Ground! It is going there! Help it out and you may save your equipment and maybe your life! The lighting jumps hundreds feet from a cloud to the ground! There is No place in your house it can't jump if there is not a good easy way to ground. The third wire is one easy way. But when it comes to grounds it truly can be the more the better!
1) I learned to ground a base station antenna before plugging in the hand held. Good advice Dave - easily overlooked. 2) Stainless Steel is still a metal and as such is prone to dissimilar metal problems. Many people think it's stainless so it's fine. It's still steel and with current, moisture and another metal it too will corrode and effect electrical joints.
You're right, but a good quality stainless has a very tight oxide layer that tends to keep iron ions from migrating out of the interface between the metal/oxide (unlike the relationship between aluminum and its oxide, which is good, but porous) and is less susceptible than aluminum to pitting corrosion, so the net result is less corrosion between a good stainless and aluminum. Copper is close in the electromotive series to iron, and so there isn't much galvanic at that junction.
I'm no expert on stainless but there are different grades, 316 for instance is better than 304 for food use at least and a friend of mine that machines it says it's constantly oxidising on it's surface which might lead to it reacting with other metals at different rates depending which grade you use. There are some "stainless" products from the far East that actually rust so they must be the lower grade stuff.
Thank you...putting up my first uhf/ vhf ant in the morning . Wanted to do the grounds correctly. Actually new ham doing the grounds for a new radio also..
Dave, I was told by an Elmer of mine that my tower ground rods were too far apart. I was adding 2 more ground rods (one for each leg of the 25G rohn tower). He said the ground rods need to be right next to the tower. I had them spaced 8’ apart per code so I thought. I get we need to have short payment h to ground but ground rods too close together violate the voltage gradient of ground rods. Thanks for you answer as there are not more disagreements in radio besides dissimilar metals. Thanks so much.
very useful and interesting video . This happened to me 2-3 times . The fist time a lightning cut in the middle a tree that was not more than 20 m far from the room i lived The static remained in the antenna wire . After connetcing the radio next day it burned the main FET of the receiver . It was a rural place 1.5 km far from 'the civilization' , second time the lightning burned the PCs built in modem on 2009
I wish for you to expand on RF in the Shack and the use of current chokes, baluns of different sizes and having several HF antenna’s, say a End Fed 80m wire and a HF yagi with one sending current down the coax of the other when transmitting. That seems to be an issue in my shack. Thanks, you are doing a great service to the Ham Community.
But Dave, here's my question. Obviously, the radio, the tuner, and the TNC are all interconnected (said interconnection not shown here), meaning that each one has several paths to ground, meaning you have essentially created several ground loops with the use of the long copper bar. I'm a brand-new general, so I'm far from proficient in this knowledge, but the more I try to figure out what to do to ground my radio (which runs off a marine battery), and my tuner, the more confused I get. Here's my setup--marine battery connected to radio, tuner connected to radio, G5RV antenna connected to radio. I have driven an 8-foot copper grounding rod into the ground right outside my shack only a few feet from my equipment. How to ground all this stuff--antenna, radio, tuner, battery(?), I have no idea, since I'm trying to avoid ground loops. Something that should be simple and straightforward seems not to be. Most explanations tend to be abstract, and not concrete enough to help a new guy actually hook things up properly. For instance, how does one actually hook flat copper ribbon to a copper pipe? Are there commercial fittings available for such purpose? And if the equipment is interconnected and then all connected to the same pipe, doesn't that create ground loops? Finally, since I disconnect all my equipment from the antenna and the power source when not in use, and I don't plan to use it during a lightning storm, I've been told I don't even need to ground anything. (But then, doesn't static electricity build up on my antenna, meaning I could fry my radio when I hook up the coax from the antenna. Or can I just touch the coax to the ground rod before connecting it, and will that solve the potential problem?) After all, I essentially have a "field-day setup" right in my shack. And as far as I know, most folks don't use groundings on field days. All the advice seems to lend more confusion to this topic. So many questions, so few answers. I enjoy your videos, and am using them to help me muddle through getting started in my new radio hobby. Thanks for any help. 73.
I stand by the video. You can attach copper strap to the ground rod with a hose clamp. You should run all your antennas through lightning arrestors that are clamped to the ground rod. Don't worry about ground loops unless you get RF in the shack, and then try first just rearranging cables until things work.
Dave I just subscribed to your channel - great information and so well done - Thanks for sharing. I've been a ham for 1/2 my life and learned something new today.
I do realize that this is an old video but there are still a couple of things about it that I'm going to point out. I am retired out of 45 years in the electrical craft. I've installed communications equipment shelters from Tierra Del Fuego to Alaska and from French Frigate Shoals (think Hawaii and your close enough) to the middle east. The Motorola standard you mentioned is the Bible for that work. I saw a couple of things in your video that you may want to address. The "Acorn Clamp" at the top of your ground rod is the wrong size for that diameter of rod. That is not a trivial as it reads. The proper sized "Acorn Clamp" will only clear the sides of the rod by barely enough to get it on there and the V at the bottom of the acorn will have a much closer hold on the Grounding Electrode Conductor (GEC) and will have much more contact area with both the rod and the GEC. More contact area means lower impedance. When installing the rod and clamps; including the one you attach your Coaxial surge protectors to; always buff them to a bright copper surface before attaching them to each other. The easiest thing to use for that is Emory Tape. As soon as you are finished removing any copper oxide from the contact surfaces coat them with a laboratory listed conductive copper connection compound. I have a bottle of KOPR-SHIELD that I'm using right now but the brand is of no importance as long as it is Testing Laboratory Listed for use with Copper connections. Once the mating surfaces are coated make up the connection wrench tight but don't distort the clamp! Brass is quite malleable so that is easy to do. Best practice is to run the GEC buried in the earth and make up the GEC clamp below the surface as a buried connection. The earth itself will then protect the GEC, Rod head, and the clamp from physical damage. To keep the inevitable water which will pass over the rod, clamp and GEC from slowly washing away the protective copper contact compound cover the completed connection with an electrical insulating mastic pad. Squeeze the pad tightly closed around the protected surfaces. That is usually quite easy to do and makes a fully waterproof protector. There are 2 ways to Do Grounding. One is fully effective and the other is something less than that. -- Tom Horne W3TDH
I have hundreds of feet of granite beneath my property. There is a safety ground installed by an electrician, but that took diamond drilling at multiple points.
In other videos you never mentioned connecting the station ground rod back to the main entrance ground rod. You touched on it here, but didn't really convey the safety importance of doing so. It is covered well in the ARRL Station Grounding and Bonding book, as well as the other 2 you mentioned on here. My understanding from a couple of master electricians is that it also a requirement of the National Electric Code ( NEC ). SAFETY first! and like you stated here, it doesn't add noise. If anything it can help to reduce it by further lowering the impedance of you main and station ground.
I live in south Florida and I have found out the hard way that a lightning strike can glass over your ground rod. The heat from the lightning makes glass from the sand and the ground is not ground anymore. It is good to check the ground from time to time and just for fun hit it with a hammer. This may break up any glass that formed. It can easily mess with your head when you find a high voltage on your ground rod. Was not high voltage like plate voltage but, when working with 12 equipment 8 voltage on the ground rod I thought was high.
Dave, the part around 4:00 that discusses a fault is incorrect. Simply opening the neutral (open circuit) will not create a dangerous fault and does not pose a shock hazard. It could create an arc fault, however. The "green" ground wire protects you if the hot conductor makes inadvertent contact with exposed metal parts by tripping the breaker since it is ultimately connected to the neutral bus bar in the main panel
Much of your information is misleading. I realize you are not a professional in this field, but s an electrician, the thing we need to tell people is more about bonding than grounding. Make sure all of your radios, amps, antennas, coax etc are bonded together in the shack and then run a SINGLE heavy gauge wire (6AWG is standard) to the grounding electrode system of your home's electrical system. If you MUST drive your own ground rod (it is not necessary and I simply use an intersystem bonding termination to connect that 6AWG to my home's grounding system) MAKE SURE it is bonded to your home's electrical grounding system, be it ground rods if they are there, or water pipes if they are not. DO NOT drive your own ground rod and only connect it to your ham stuff. This could create a dangerous difference in potential with a nearby surge or lighting strike. Despite what folks will tell you, this won't create all sorts of noise on your system and is the ONLY safe way to do things. You want all your equipment to be at the same potential as your home electrical system, cable and satellite wiring, water pipes, gas pipe, etc. I'd encourage you to check out Mike Holt's videos on bonding and grounding, he is very knowledgeable and has corrected many companies that encourage people to drive their own ground rod (create an isolated grounding system) for equipment that is not only dangerous but can damage expensive equipment.
Another winning video and just what I needed after viewing Episode 8. Based on watching your videos I'm not ready to order my first 'real' radio and other pieces as a new Technician. (September 27). Just using a handheld right now. I'm studying for my General exam in December and will be using your videos on the topic as well. You are clearly so well informed yet your teaching skills make is simple for the newcomer. Sometimes, when a question pops into my mind, you then proceed to address that precise issue. A great 'Elmer' (new term for me) for this 'newbie'...or is it 'newly'...or I've also seen "noob". Anyway thanks for your efforts and for your contribution to the enjoyment and education of so many. (p.s. looked around on TH-cam for the 'tip jar' and my scan may not be working, however I cannot see it. Clicked the circle with 'go!' inside it and was taken to your website...clicked the tip jar icon their and ended up in a 'do loop' (old term from my early programming days' of an circle with an arrow going around. Wasn't able to complete the transaction, however I will not give up. You have already added much value to me in terms of enjoyable education and 'coaching' and saved me $$$ and I'm sure aggravation and frustration. (Love that pink shirt.)
Paul, I'm delighted you find the videos useful. If you look on my channel page at th-cam.com/users/davecasler, you'll see a box called "Support This Channel." That takes you to the TH-cam version of the tip jar. The tip jar on my website can be reached at dcasler.com/tip-jar/. If you're watching on a mobile device, the links don't work very well, I've found. 73, Dave
Hi Dave, Thanks for all your videos, they have been helpful. Last week I installed a mast to my chimney, and it has been working great. Today I finally got back up to run the ground (6ga stranded) from the mast to my home's single point ground rod. But now, I'm tripping my GFCI in the garage where my station is located. If I disconnect my antenna from the radio, I have light, but when I try to plug it back in I'm left in the dark. I do not have any other grounding options, and have not yet grounded my coax either.
You've got some ground current flowing through the GFI, which will trip it. Something somewhere isn't right. If it's RFI that trips it, you might try replacing it with a new one--the new ones have less sensitivity to RFI if you get a brand name item.
MFJ 931 Artificial ground? I am on first floor no way to connect radio or atu to earth. Previously, I connected my ATU and Radio to a star point , then the short Cooper wire to copper pipe on central heating radiator. However, I disconnected this now as I was told it is not safe. My 66ft antenna wire is connected to 9:1 UNUN, I have a short earth wire connected from UNUN to a ground steak in garden. Thank you. Paul 2E0 PPJ
Just missing the NFPA/NEC, R56 #6 bonding of the station single-point ground (rod) to AC mains ground? Also best using a thermite bond versus just clamping.
Love your videos, you cover so many topics and everything is concise and salient - some stuff in the art is elusive but you nail things down and never delineate. I can't even go one paragraph without suppersymmetrical tangents of tangents. I think everyone I know started on your videos and practice test spam! You and Randy K7AGE lay it down for bambi operators in an approachable, gradualist format - no nonsense in and out. This is one topic that is far too difficult to get good information on, so much mysticism lore and misinformation to earthing. I had scour the topic for years to come up with some bearing in the field because of all the conflicting information and outright bad sources. Axioms of truth, pearls of wisdom and ramblings to follow: Let me preface this by saying I AM NOT A LICENSED ELECTRICIAN, however, nor am I as of yet a dead duck - but as far as I know DOD standard manuals grounding bonding and shielding for tactical and long haul communications facilities and C4ISR/SCIF all stipulate to bond any penetrations of the facility including gas lines to the single point ground, equipotential plane or equipotential loop. I don't have mine bonded, because my bullocks arent that large and I reason the chain link fence is closer than the gas main, but that being said the manuals iterated that in the event of a strike the primary mechanism of damage is from flash-over between lesser dielectric objects secondary to the strike, and if that flashover should hop to the gas line (which is now at a different potential, in proximity, and thus at risk for streamer formation - because we didnt directly bond it via a low impedance path), it will immediately burn through the point where it impacts that object of different potential - in this case the gas line. Burnouts and burn ins are the main concern according to the DoD - That was my understanding, I could have completely misread the manuals they are a very dense read and I struggled to stay tracking - and it's all textbook - I have never had a direct hit from a strike! Hope if I do i'm just out like a lightswitch and my synapse doesnt even cycle once to process what is happening! Had a near miss yesterday that lit every bulb in a chandelier up almost as bright as 120VAC mains power -Luck would have it I was looking right at the chandelier, switch open - and it lit - Even the E26 LED with a power supply driver built in !! - finally one lightbulb filament vaporized into a plasma and carried the surplus of current in a camera-bulb like flash, saving the rest of the bulbs. I can only imagine what the back EMF would have had to have been. The capacitor in the central air unit exploded as well - that cap saved the AC condenser when it passed most of the AC component of the transient and made the sacrifice. That was a hot night waiting on the furnace man, it hit 89 in the shack with the computers and tubes going. As far as lightning arrestors, I dont mess around anymore, almost lost some gear here I couldnt afford to replace - I only run ICE (Industrial Communications Engineers), even on equipment I always keep disconnected when not in use (all of it). Was operating and looked out the window to see a giant arc across the sky with nothing but a gas discharge tube inline! As for array solutions, they cover the FAA the DoD boeing and some fortune 500's. I have never found an arrestor that covers every practicable damage vector in quite the same way. Shunt fed against earth through a tuned inductor, DC isolated via a blocking capacitor, gas discharge tubes to ground, metal oxide varistors for the rapid rise time transients, a resistor to bleed off dielectric leakage - to do any more just seems...unreasonable. Not all of us can run a $500 brick wall surge protector! KNOWLEDGE SEEKERS AND BAMBIS NOTE - your lightning arrestor ONLY functions as designed if your grounding system is of low impedance and free of current loops. Keep your rods 8 feet or more apart to minimize inter electrode capacitance as the soil is charged around the rods as the volume of earth about them floats in potential during the transient. Also - Keep the inductance from the control operator position to the single point ground as low as possible to keep radiation out of your face! (Use a big wire to prevent cataracts) *Deadly Important:* DO NOT INSTALL A DISCRETE GROUND ROD FOR YOUR EQUIPMENT *UNLESS* THAT GROUND ROD IS BONDED TO THE UTILITY ROD via as low inductance a path as practicable, no less than 6AWG bare copper per the national electrical code. *Failing to make this bond between the discrete rod and the utility rod, and then plugging your radio into a utility power outlet IS DIRECTLY BONDING your discrete rod to the utility rod USING YOUR !!!!!TRANSCEIVER!!!!!*. BOND THE SPGP ROD TO THE UTILITY ROD AND MAKE IT A SATELLITE ROD, NOT A DISCRETE ROD. In a corollary vein - If you have a lot of reflected power and a lot of forward power (IE multiband wire), dont use headphones if you can avoid it - putting those on will put your brain in the RF circuit - logarithmic field strength can be your friend, get that radiator a few thousands of a wavelength off of your grey matter and use a speaker if you don’t need headphones!! Be safe all and if you have doubts, contact a licensed electrician or an inveterate amateur with a few decades under his belt and some experience with solid state gear (I've had a few boat anchor operators tell me they haven't grounded a thing, ever, and they never will until they are grounded - SK!) If you run into one of these boat anchor "Unfounded and Ungrounded" ops - to each his own, no point in pitting fact against dogma - he aint going to learn no new tricks, more likely to take offense to our pressing the point that by allowing his station to float in potential - he is in bad practice). If they are ignorant and don’t want knowledge, it won’t do you any good to be the bearer of it. As far as your insurance goes - the NEC is god. (If you dont follow they hi brow bureaucratic topheavy yankee NEC rules, and your QTH burns right down to the ground, your insurance company will definitely *NOT* cover it). Be safe above all else my coons! I am NOT a paid spokesman for ICE, but I should be because I’m sure even the most casual observer can tell grounding bonding and shielding are the three topics most near and dear to my heart, and I plug Array Solutions to everyone seeking knowledge on the topic or hardening of their facilities/equipment.
Looking to upgrade my 2m rig. I'm good on grounding from the antenna to the rod but I would like more information on seeing how to use a ground strap from the station to the rod.
you must bond the station ground to the utility service ground and you got lighting protection wrong also. NEC 2020 covers this you must bond the grounds
Dave, great information and a concise video. How important is it to have the station ground bonded to the utility ground? I had our electric company come out to our house and there is a ground rod inside the housing that the incoming service line and meter are enclosed. The electrician was shocked (figuratively, not literally) to see it in the enclosure and said that there was probably another one within 6-8 feet in either direction. I have not yet been able to locate it and if I crack the seal for the enclosure to bond to the one inside it I will be charged at least $250 for opening the enclosure. I am fortunate that my shack is immediately inside of the location where I am planning on installing an entrance panel this spring. Grounds will be pretty short. I have an 8’ ground rod ready to go when the warm weather returns and the ground thaws. My shack equipment ground bus will ground to a copper plate within the entrance panel, which will then be grounded to the ground rod that I install. The entrance panel will also have the lightning protection mounted on the copper plate within the panel. The distance from the electrical service panel and my shack panel will be around 8’. Do you think that there will be any issues if I am unable to locate another ground rod for the utility service and I am unable to create that bond or if I do locate a second utility rod near my shack entrance panel would you advise against using it for the station ground directly?
Grounding my favorit topic here in romania groundig 4 antennas has to meet the majured rezistent of 1.2... to 0 ohms usualy 4 a hamm a 8 to 12 ground stakes of 2 m lenth of galvanised steel and abou 20 to 30 m of galvanized plasband gets you there is you hav black eth and not sand or stone. puttig salt and coul in the ground near or on top of the rods helps. cable or galvanized plasband from ground to internal panel needs to be wery thic 25 50 squer milimiter
Question. I have an end fed dipole. The 49:1 unun box is about 25-30 feet away from where my coax enters the window.The rig is about 5 feet away from my window. My question is, do I attach a ground to the unun box ground terminal AND to my transceivers ground lug? If I do that, then both ground rods would be 25-30 feet away from each other.
Good evening Thank you for your videos, always instructive and educational. I'm not yet a Radio Amateur, but I'm learning, learning and still learning ;) I use a translator to understand you, so it's not always easy, but your descriptions and diagrams help me a lot. I'm in the process of grounding my entire station following your advice. You say you also have to ground the antenna. I have a "Loop Antennas MFJ-1782X", do I have to ground it too? Thank you and keep up the good quality videos. Sincerely Niko
Hello Dave, Thank you for your contribution to the ham radio community, your videos are a pleasure to watch and your oratory skills are remarkable. My question is related to safety ground: What if I operate in a location that does not permit driving an 8' copper ground rod into the earth (eg Apartment or condo) or if I'm operating portable (not mobile) How does safety ground apply in these situations. Thanks
+kk4dbi The safety ground is the AC utility power ground, and is connected via the third "ground" wire in your power supply. An external RF ground is nice, but if you don't have one, you may be able to do without.
This is the most comprehensible information I've seen on station grounding. Thanks for a concise, understandable overview.
I figured I would hook up my old CB radio at home. 20 video's later I am realizing everything this project is going to require. What went from let me hook up the old CB at home went to I need a base station antenna, a new CB, new mic, grounding rods, mounting materials, wires, and support guy wires with stakes.
Typical project done correctly !
Thank! As a licensed electrician I see and hear all kinds of silliness regarding grounding. I am going to refer your video anytime I am asked about this subject. All of your information is spot on!
Dave--I've watched your videos with interest and much admiration. You have an excellent teaching style, and your explanations are clear, concise, and free of minutiae that get in the way of knowledge transfer. The production values of your videos are also superior. This was one of the clearest, most lucid explanations of a difficult topic that I've seen. Can you believe that yours is the first description I've seen that notes that the bus-bar IS a single point ground, and not multiple points? The controversy over multiple loops being created when grounding to a single bar seems to be settled here; as you say, the ARRL published specs call that bunk. On another note, I watched your videos as I studied for my Extra, and over the course of a week went from deciding to upgrade from General to a 49/50 on my Extra exam. Your videos provided excellent clarification of difficult topics. I thank you, and eagerly look forward to seeing much more from you! 73, Mark KD8EDC
+Mark Tosiello Thank you! I'm happy the videos proved useful. 73, Dave, KEØOG
Mark Tosiello I concur.
Passed my Extra exam this afternoon. All self study. Your videos have been a huge help. 73 de K5CCG
+Chad Smith Hi Chad, congrats on your extra! I hope to hear you on the air. 73, Dave, KEØOG
+Chad Smith Congrats, Chad. I am averaging 85% on my Extra Cass tests, without using my calculator half the time, and >95% when I use it. So I will have my certificate of passing on the 16th, and my Extra within 10 days of that. 73, Seth, KI7AQJ I am gettin me a vanity call sign. Haven't decided on something cool sounding in CW Morse ,or just something cool.
@@davecasler I'm new to ham radio I'm working on getting my license I'm currently erecting a tower I've read the NEC about grounding but I have a question about grounding my coax do I use a ground rod that is isolated and dedicated for the coax from everything else or does it still need to be tied in with the rest of the grounds around the whole house including the ones that you use to ground the tower
@@bw71wad They should be "bonded," meaning tied together
@@davecasler thanks
Hello Dave. The NEC has changed since you produced this well done episode. All grounding on a premises must connect to the UFER or electrical ground at the power panel now as you know. This episode will make HAM's install a ground rod for their station only with no connection to the UFER grounding system which is a code violation. Thanks Dave for your work.
Upgraded to my General a year ago, finally getting an HF set up. Was ready to buy everything and realized I didn't have a plan to ground my station. Shelved the project for a month. Watched this video and feel confident to get started again!
I may have missed it but did you mention that the ground needs to connect to the main service entrance ground?
That’s a very important point to make. Too many hams just add a ground rod for their radio and do not connect their ground rod to the service entrance ground rod. The ground potential at one ground rod can be very different than at another ground rod during a surge or nearby lightning strike! In recent years new houses all seem to have a place (terminal strip) where this connection to the service ground can easily be made.
Very informative video. Thanks! Your explanations of the neutral vs green wire ground, and lightning arrestors were helpful to me.
Came here very confused and not knowing what to do with the ground of my radio. You saved me. I'm really thankful with your effort with this video.
Dave! So many people share so many confusing and over complicated information on grounding. Your video is fabilous and every single time I need to revisit grounding and other concepts your videos are my go to place to refresh!
Thank you. So very clear! And practical and SAFETY aware!
This is a A+ Presentation. If you have a ground rod for your antenna's make sure you run a ground wire # 4 or #8 bare wire depending on your service panel from your antenna ground and your service panel ground because you can get a ground fault between the two grounds. You will be trying to balance between the two grounds through your third ground house plug wiring in your interior radio equipment ground.
If you loose your service panel ground everything in your house will be grounding through tour radio station and the third ground on your plug will not be big enough to handle it.
If you experience light bulbs burning out more than often that could be a sign of a poor ground at the service panel.
You would be surprised what dishonest people do. I found at my brothers house the ground rod was two feet long it should have been eight feet and I complained to the county building department when checking other houses all were like that, The electrical contractor made four ground rods out of one.
Regards; Phil WW5D
Every time I need to understand something, I'm looking for your videos now. You are doing an excellent job for us new hams out here! Thank you!
I grounded to an old steel gas line network, and I mean an old "abandoned" gas line, with a wood plugs in it, and "no gas". Super great grounding!!!! The new gas line is plastic inside plastic with a metal tracer wire for a locator to get a signal from. The old gas lines run all over the place, but there is no gas in them. I had someone come out and scope the sewer lines, the new and the old gas line looking for accidental cross bores through other pipes. So that has been double checked, but i was not to concerned or I'd have never done it in the first place.
I've used 10' 1" electrical conduit as a ground rod. I wak it down with a fence post driver. I drill a hole in the end, then bolt the wire to the conduit with ss bolts, washers, and nuts. And I've used ss hose clamps too. I used a panel box neutral bus bar for all the ham shack ground wires.
This is probably the most succinct yet comprehensive explanation of grounding I have seen. Great video!
I forgot how beautiful the Colorado mountains are. Thanks for the pictures and the information.
I have been a Ham Operator for just over 25 years and on CB Radio since 1965 and I have never once grounded my station and have not had issues.I see it as a total waste of time,effort,& money.I am happy for you that feel the need for it so have fun and 73.
I operated for many years without worrying about grounding. Where I am now I've found that grounding helps reduce common-mode noise. Plus we have lots of lightning here, so I feed all my feedlines through lightning surge arrestors for piece of mind. It won't survive a direct strike, but it's something.
An excellent article Dave the only comment I would make is that the deeper you can get your RF ground rods the better and that if you add additional ground rods to your SEPARATE house wiring safety earth that you will likely improve the signal to noise levels at the receiver
Leaving things disconnected all the time is an excellent idea. That's what I do. During the summer we have "popcorn" thunderstorms that just "pop up" in minutes and if I'm not home it can cause bad things to happen. Back in they day (tube radios) we used to string several neon lamps in series as a "spark gap." They would clamp at about 250V which was good for low power transmitters and most tube type rigs could handle that type of surge in through the antenna. I'll second that "don't use solder" for your ground!
I truly appreciate how well you teach these topics. The clarity you bring is amazing.
Another great source of information about grounding and bonding is the Mike Holt forums and training videos. A key takeaway that I've noticed is "grounding" often misrepresented or under represented, especially the safety ground. In fact the term "ground" gets used to mean so many things it can becomes unclear for some people. An important fact is that ground rods that meet the NEC simply cannot conduct enough current to clear a fault. The code calls for 25 ohms. This simply isn't enough to trip the smallest branch circuit breaker. the bonding of the green wire to neutral at the service entrance gives the "ground" the current capacity to return the voltage to source, trip the breaker and clear the fault. I watched a Mike Holt video where he and his team were showing how to test a ground system and how different soil types require different techniques to achieve the NEC ideal 25 ohms.
Also, the lighting taking the path of least resistance is often said, but Kirchhoff's laws teach us that lighting takes all paths, the least resistance of course gets the most current. I understand lighting doesn't turn corners very well either.
I've been studying for my extra and find your videos extremely helpful.
73, Phil, KC7SVI
Thanks and good luck with your studies!
Lightning strike? Listen to this one! The storm had been going for about 45 minutes and was the most intensive lightning storm I had ever heard. This is the most "dynamic" portion of the storm, DIRECT STRIKES! The sounds were so loud, probably 30 db above what it could handle, that they clipped the digital recording. The first direct strike, about 1:10 melted the Dacron guy wires on my 30 meter vertical. The guys popped like a rubber band and, bringing an insulator with one of them and struck a window. You an hear the glass breaking. I quickly went to the side door to look outside just in time for two direct strikes at about 1:43 (I was blinded and my ears were ringing for several minutes). Then to add insult to injury another strike came at 1:53 which melted the CPVC insulating section at the base and down it came. When I dug up the coax there was no copper, after cutting it lengthwise I found that the center conductor was nothing but little beads of copper. How do you protect against this? You can't. 100 million volts at 500 thousand amps is going to do damage. Putting the end of our coax inside of a glass bottle isn't going to help either. That lightning came miles to get to your antenna and a few millimeters of glass isn't going to stop it. The best protection for your rigs during a storm like this is to put them back into the original box and slide them under your bed. :) Just disconnect everything and pile it in the center of the room far away from electrical outlets and antenna connections. Did I lose equipment? Yes, everything, rigs, power supplies, computer, oscilloscopes, just about every piece of test equipment in the room...including the little MFJ battery powered clock. It was as if I was standing on the bridge of the U.S.S Enterprise with the Klingons attacking.
Hear it for yourself, this was around October of 2010. The entire recording was about two hours and thirty minutes long. This is the two minute highlight, no editing except to just give the two and a half minutes of heart stopping lightning strikes. It was what we called a "four kid storm." That means four of my kids came and wanted to get in bed with us.
www.eaglecreekobservatory.org/hamradio/sounds/storm.mp3
Simply the best clip I've seen. Thanks Dave. And great advice on connecting dissimilar metals together!
Appreciate this video, David. During a recent wind and sleet storm, I experienced some heavy static build up in my homemade 2M ground plane antenna which I had hooked up to my cheap HT. Even though I was still getting acceptable SWRs, I decided to disconnect until after the static danger was gone. This was no simple shock like you get walking around in your socks on a carpet floor and touching your wife's nose, you know because they love that,,, this was a seriously painful shock with a much larger spark. After the wind and moisture subsided, I took a chance and touched the coax connector, and the static was gone, so I hooked back up and the system works great. All that said, I'm about to set up my first real, non-HT dual band in my office/shack and I want to make sure I've got everything grounded properly. I built a new and improved Dual Band antenna, which I plan to tune once everything is installed and grounded properly. Thanks for the education. I did go ahead and subscribe to your channel for more than one reason. Most importantly, the education I receive by watching your videos, secondarily, I'm a old Son of the the Colorful State; grew up in the Springs. Blessings, my friend. Thanks again for the video. KI5CSQ
Thank you David, I’m an electrician, I’v tried to to do this exact explanation to a couple of my friends. Their are a few points they resist agreeing with. Anyway they accept the important ones, but are bent on doing some over-kills ( like 3 g/rods for a triangular tower). l will recommend, this chapter of yours to these guys. Thanks again, W2alx.
I agree, good video and presentation, but what kinda frustates me is the varying of opinions...
I just watched another video on grounding a few weeks ago by a well know Extra and he's of the school that you need the three+ ground rods around the tower. Also, the ARRL grounding and bonding book has this as well...
Not trying to insult anyone, they all know more than me, by far...
HAM radio in about 1950 SAW changes in some control of the plugs and sockets that used to be so dependably standard. But plug and socket I missed the most and still retained only on the back of the high gain rotor control box is a cinch- jones multi pIn plug and socket. It is extremely rugged, of power level for ham radio easily, and it even has a strain relief on the plug cap. If you want to run anything in ham radio with plugs and sockets try to find some Cinch Jones brand units that will do your job very well. Many ham radios have gone downhill to use the nylon multi pIn 12 Volt plug in socket on the back of new radios the pain of every real hams existence ARE the DIN plugs and sockets which came into use because of some misguided engineer somewhere IN manufacturing specifications. The way to soldier a small piece of wire to the little pIn is to use your hot iron to heat the WIRE and use the WIRE to supply heat as you touch they connection with tiny diameter soldering wire.
Even though sockets for headphones are now minie-size, one holdover on ham radio is the use of the two conductor quarter-inch phone plug for plugging in a CW code key. how has that ONE item held on?
Dave, that photograph at the end is spectacular. Love the fall colors.
Good info Dave. Thank you. Far too many hams either ignore grounding all together, or worse, listen to a bunch of nonsense about it and act on it.
I run all of the gear in my station through a single AC power bus strip that's easy to reach. In addition to being able to unplug my whole station with a single plug when I leave the room or hear thunder, I know that it causes all of my gear's grounds to be tied closer to one another to help minimize ground loops. I've seen some real problems caused by interconnected gear that was plugged into outlets that were on 2 different house circuits.
As for antenna grounds, I've found that if I'm running low frequency antennas it's best to use an individual (virgin) ground directly below the antenna, as a common ground will feed noise from elsewhere back into the antenna, and I like to use a 1 to 1 transformer at the antenna to decouple DC between the antenna and the station, and I ground the coax shield for that antenna right where it comes into the house, again with its own isolated ground. Grounds for low frequency antenna systems can take some real playing with in order to really cut down the noise. But it's time well spent, as you can remove a whole lot of endless noise (several dB) with an effective ground.
What a fantastic series. im learning new things and building on known information. As a new foundation level (UK) amateur i find all information invaluable but the relaxed and layman way that you address your audience is great. thx and i look forward to the rest of your videos. 73's
Dave, Thank you for your episode on grounding. Do you have one that covers second story station setup?
All I hear/read about is short line to ground and 8 ft rod - over and over. Which is fine to drive in the point if someone has that option. But my "shack" has to be in the second story of the house and lava rock is only a foot or two beneath the surface.
At a previous house, I was able to put the shack on the ground floor and run a strap out the the rod just outside a window. But it was more "Rods" because I was barely able to put one in at a 3 to 4 foot depth before hitting rock - so I put in three short rods and connected them together.
But in this house, I'm on the second floor and given the window's orientation any ground wire would need to make several bends and would probably be 30 ft long. My transceiver is plugged into an MFJ filtered power strip that's plugged into the way with the PS plugged into the same strip. The HF antenna is just a long wire (vertical) going to 4:1 balan (or UNUN) hot lead with above ground radials going to the ground terminal and coax from there - with some wound around and air core for a choke - to the shack.
I want to do better but any "ground" lead would probably be longer than the wire antenna itself. What do the second story (and higher) guys do?
806 call back brought me here. Good work getting my curiosity intrigued 😂
Good job. I special ordered a 10' 3/4" rod for the base of the tower, then ran #2 copper THHN along with the coaxs into the shack to a ground buss (common point) with a #6 from the that to one of my 2 ground rods for the electrical service. Glad to see we agree on all aspects. I run everything on 12 vdc (mobiles) and the only issue is mobiles don't usually have ground posts. They are negative ground which means the SO-239 is connected to the (-) negative. A barrel connector with a ground lug comes in handy when transitioning from hardline or LMR400 to lets say 8x for a short hook up jumper. 73
That lightning strike sound actually made me jump lol. Great video thanks!
FB video OM. Very informative, and I have never understood this topic more than I do now after watching your video.
TU ES 73 DE AF5WT
Hi Dave, Loved your video and i think there is Never Enough emphasis put into this area of Amateur Radio. My call sign in VO1VXC. I work for Bell Canada as a Business Services Communications Technician but worked as an Electrician prior to taking this posting. I am a Journeyman Electrician with Red Seals in both Construction and Industrial Electrical. I have installed many grounding grids for Xfmr pads, Communication Towers and Building systems. Cad Welding (Therm-it Weld) is the Preferred method of Bonding grounding systems together and mechanical splicing is more common for the ancillary devices. Cad Welding fuses the copper to copper in one joint as you know and the success rate is very high. I always tell everyone that "All Points must remain equal" in a grounding system and bigger is better when referring to copper bonding, IE Buss Bars, Copper Strap, Grounding Braid and bonding jumpers. The Electrical Code in Canada has "lightened up" on the size of copper conductor required for station electrical grounding and what once was a #1AWG for a 200A Residential Service is now a #6AWG. Again, thru non-destructive and destructive testing, it was determined #6AWG would be sufficient to carry any and all of the unbalanced load in an open neutral fault. Again, Bigger is better and there is Never enough emphasis on the importance of proper grounding for Amateur Radio installations. Tower grounding is essential for the safety of lightning strikes as you pointed out, but the Bonding has to remain from these points to all points in the system. Grounding at the base of the tower could and should be as simple as 3 / 6ft copper ground rods driven 5 ft away from the three corners of tower base and bonding jumpers from each leg to each ground rod. I always bond my ground rods with a jumper to make a circle or loop. A Junction Box at the tower base with Static Discharge protection can and would be bonded to this ground rod installation. A #6 Bonding jumper could and should be ran towards the shack and to the Main Electrical Ground Bonding of the Residence. Again, if this ground is difficult or doesn't seem to be adequate, additional ground rods can be driven to ensure the Main Electrical Ground is maintained. Here in Canada, 3 - 8ft ground rods are driven and they are spaced 10 ft apart and joined with UN-insulated #6AWG ground wire and are tied to the First point of disconnect in the Building or residence. Depending on the size of service. this could be a Main Switch or a combination Meter Base and mains disconnect but in any event, tied to the Neutral Point at that place. Station Bonding / Grounding would and should tie to this Main electrical ground by means of a "Split- Bolt" or Burndy mechanical connection to a Ground Buss, whereby Ground Tails can be attached to the station devices. Amateur Radio Operators not familiar with proper grounding should consult a local electrician and should actually have an electrician come by just to "Sign-off" on any issues or questionable areas. Installing Towers, Antennas and leads from these devices into your house, invites mother nature into your home and if not properly done, could result in catastrophic results. There has been some discussion as well regarding installing the Ground Electrodes in the concrete base before the pouring of the concrete and it is in my opinion to keep those electrodes out of the concrete base and the bonding jumpers on the surface to the proper attachment points. Concrete bases have been reported to "Split" if a direct hit occurs to a tower and proper dissipation into the ground away from the tower base would be the best result. I also have a Ground Conductor that runs down the outside of my 50ft tower away from my Entrance coax and this bonds devices like antenna masts, Rotor frame, Top section of the tower and my home made "Lightning Dissipation Sphere". All connections are spayed with "Glyptol" and essentially protected from corrosion which exists very highly up this way. Best 73 and thanks for allowing my comments.
Thanks for the information.
Many thanks for your very understandable and concise presentation. I just passed my tech and general and am waiting on my call sign. Armed with this information and your reference recommendations I have more confidence that I can properly ground and shield my QTH.
Dave, you're a natural born teacher.
Your examples & delivery is impeccable and so easy to comprehend!
I can't wait to dive into your channel. -'73 man!
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Great explanation on why a base station must have its own ground.
RF grounding an essential requirement for all ham stations....unfortunately many of us give least priority.....as u said a dedicated grounding for ham shack a MUST...i will do it immediately
tnx David 73
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Murthy
Great video! My electrician is running my three (3) LMR 400 coax cables up my wall, into my attic and outside tomorrow. He is also going to pull a 6 gauge solid copper ground wire and hook it up to my service panel ground.
Great stuff.... I'm a fairly new ham and your are always my person I turn to when I have questions or issues.....
Dave - Thanks for the straightforward, to the point, easy to understand videos. With just the right amount of humor! George, VE3EWM.
Dave, your videos are really good on HAMs. One small correction at you video time lapse 2:55 onwards, here is the Main 2 line Neutral wire is never connected to the Home Earth Ground which is Green wire. The electrical device’s body if it has a 3 pin plug, one is Line, second is Neutral that connects to the electrical mains supply and the middle bigger pin is the Earthing which goes to your building’s Green wire called as earthing. The middle Green wire connects to the device’s metal cabinet. It’s good to have earthing for PCs/HAM Radios as not to have a minor shock or hum or in MacBooks that give tingling buzz on the palms. Here the unwanted leakage electric current goes into ground and is a safe feature.
Sorry that I was bit skeptical initially but thought to convey the connection points of the Ground and Neutral wire, never meet. Their electrical characteristic called as port is different.
My 8 foot ground rod showed spiraling patterns of corrosion when I pulled it out to move. It looked pretty wild. It was clearly green corrosion on the copper, spiraling down the rod.
GROUND LOOPING GROUND RODS: We all stayed home for Field Day, I used our club’s vertical. I also hammered in a ground rod to connect my rig’s ground terminal to it. Found at later that’s a big no-no and I had set myself up for a ground loop: because the rig was plugged into house current which is already grounded to a rod behind the breaker box. Using this second ground rod meant that, because the ground voltages would be different from the house ground and this one I just hammered in for the day, I could’ve ended up with a ground loop. Although your video is helpful- it touched on ground loops only in your shack and nowhere else. Or is the information I got about my situation wrong? Anyway, glad I didn’t blow anything up! It is, after all. “Amateur Radio!” N9DMS
Ground loops are not a safety thing and nothing will blow up, but if the length of a loop is resonant at one of your operating frequencies, you may get a high SWR or find RF on the surface of the radio or key or microphone. I had that on 15 meters when my station grounding went through the wall to a ground rod. I had to lengthen the wire to fix it. It was all the way around the house to the main AC panel with a concrete driveway in between, so bonding my station ground to the mains ground was not an option. Also, if you have a rig, amplifier, and tuner, each grounded to your station ground, sometimes you have to use ferrites on the coax between the units to break the circular RF path on the outside of the coax.
Thanks, Dave! I've had all kinds of ground issues. I think I've sometimes been prey to some of that folklore.
Excellent! Thank you! Helped me understand a lot of issues that were lost in the fog...
I'm just getting started on a grounding project, and your video helped me to understand the basics.
This is a great presentation on a topic that I’ve seen so many differing opinions on! Thanks! 73
Talk about heat from lighting! I live in South Florida, lighting Capital! Sandy soil and a good lighting hit can make Glass from the sand! I have seen it many times. It is a good idea to check your ground rods from time to time! I know some that go out and hit there ground rod with a hammer from time to time, to break up any glass formed on it. I will not say this works or not. But if you think you got a hit check your ground! If you are not sure put in another ground rod near but maybe 3 to 6 inches from the first one. I have seen where there was ground rods every foot around the wall all connected together with large cable! And have seen fuses not just blown but blown up! Lighting does what it wants to do! If you don't like that To Bad! Nothing will stop lighting! The only thing you can do is to give it a easy way to Ground! It is going there! Help it out and you may save your equipment and maybe your life! The lighting jumps hundreds feet from a cloud to the ground! There is No place in your house it can't jump if there is not a good easy way to ground. The third wire is one easy way. But when it comes to grounds it truly can be the more the better!
Nicely explained, Beautiful photo Dave - Steve VK4VSM Gold Coast
Thank You Brother KE0-OG...... I am very new to Ham Radio and still learning
1) I learned to ground a base station antenna before plugging in the hand held. Good advice Dave - easily overlooked.
2) Stainless Steel is still a metal and as such is prone to dissimilar metal problems. Many people think it's stainless so it's fine. It's still steel and with current, moisture and another metal it too will corrode and effect electrical joints.
You're right, but a good quality stainless has a very tight oxide layer that tends to keep iron ions from migrating out of the interface between the metal/oxide (unlike the relationship between aluminum and its oxide, which is good, but porous) and is less susceptible than aluminum to pitting corrosion, so the net result is less corrosion between a good stainless and aluminum. Copper is close in the electromotive series to iron, and so there isn't much galvanic at that junction.
I'm no expert on stainless but there are different grades, 316 for instance is better than 304 for food use at least and a friend of mine that machines it says it's constantly oxidising on it's surface which might lead to it reacting with other metals at different rates depending which grade you use. There are some "stainless" products from the far East that actually rust so they must be the lower grade stuff.
Thank you...putting up my first uhf/ vhf ant in the morning . Wanted to do the grounds correctly. Actually new ham doing the grounds for a new radio also..
Dave, I was told by an Elmer of mine that my tower ground rods were too far apart. I was adding 2 more ground rods (one for each leg of the 25G rohn tower). He said the ground rods need to be right next to the tower. I had them spaced 8’ apart per code so I thought. I get we need to have short payment h to ground but ground rods too close together violate the voltage gradient of ground rods.
Thanks for you answer as there are not more disagreements in radio besides dissimilar metals. Thanks so much.
very useful and interesting video . This happened to me 2-3 times .
The fist time a lightning cut in the middle a tree that was not more than 20 m far from the room i lived The static remained in the antenna wire . After connetcing the radio next day it burned the main FET of the receiver . It was a rural place 1.5 km far from 'the civilization' , second time the lightning burned the PCs built in modem on 2009
the explanation of grounding I've been looking for. thanks David!
I'm positive this episode has saved people's houses, if not lives! Thanks Dave!
Thank you
I wish for you to expand on RF in the Shack and the use of current chokes, baluns of different sizes and having several HF antenna’s, say a End Fed 80m wire and a HF yagi with one sending current down the coax of the other when transmitting. That seems to be an issue in my shack. Thanks, you are doing a great service to the Ham Community.
Fighting RFI can be frustrating. I'll add that topic to the list. Thanks
Yes. He's one of my favs. I am a new ham and learned a lot. Keep it up.
Great video and another great picture Dave.
This is one of the greatest videos I've ever seen on antenna setup!!
This is superb in every form. Very good video, explanations etc.
Glad you liked it!
But Dave, here's my question. Obviously, the radio, the tuner, and the TNC are all interconnected (said interconnection not shown here), meaning that each one has several paths to ground, meaning you have essentially created several ground loops with the use of the long copper bar. I'm a brand-new general, so I'm far from proficient in this knowledge, but the more I try to figure out what to do to ground my radio (which runs off a marine battery), and my tuner, the more confused I get. Here's my setup--marine battery connected to radio, tuner connected to radio, G5RV antenna connected to radio. I have driven an 8-foot copper grounding rod into the ground right outside my shack only a few feet from my equipment. How to ground all this stuff--antenna, radio, tuner, battery(?), I have no idea, since I'm trying to avoid ground loops. Something that should be simple and straightforward seems not to be. Most explanations tend to be abstract, and not concrete enough to help a new guy actually hook things up properly. For instance, how does one actually hook flat copper ribbon to a copper pipe? Are there commercial fittings available for such purpose? And if the equipment is interconnected and then all connected to the same pipe, doesn't that create ground loops? Finally, since I disconnect all my equipment from the antenna and the power source when not in use, and I don't plan to use it during a lightning storm, I've been told I don't even need to ground anything. (But then, doesn't static electricity build up on my antenna, meaning I could fry my radio when I hook up the coax from the antenna. Or can I just touch the coax to the ground rod before connecting it, and will that solve the potential problem?) After all, I essentially have a "field-day setup" right in my shack. And as far as I know, most folks don't use groundings on field days. All the advice seems to lend more confusion to this topic. So many questions, so few answers. I enjoy your videos, and am using them to help me muddle through getting started in my new radio hobby. Thanks for any help. 73.
I stand by the video. You can attach copper strap to the ground rod with a hose clamp. You should run all your antennas through lightning arrestors that are clamped to the ground rod. Don't worry about ground loops unless you get RF in the shack, and then try first just rearranging cables until things work.
Dave I just subscribed to your channel - great information and so well done - Thanks for sharing. I've been a ham for 1/2 my life and learned something new today.
I do realize that this is an old video but there are still a couple of things about it that I'm going to point out. I am retired out of 45 years in the electrical craft. I've installed communications equipment shelters from Tierra Del Fuego to Alaska and from French Frigate Shoals (think Hawaii and your close enough) to the middle east. The Motorola standard you mentioned is the Bible for that work. I saw a couple of things in your video that you may want to address. The "Acorn Clamp" at the top of your ground rod is the wrong size for that diameter of rod. That is not a trivial as it reads. The proper sized "Acorn Clamp" will only clear the sides of the rod by barely enough to get it on there and the V at the bottom of the acorn will have a much closer hold on the Grounding Electrode Conductor (GEC) and will have much more contact area with both the rod and the GEC. More contact area means lower impedance.
When installing the rod and clamps; including the one you attach your Coaxial surge protectors to; always buff them to a bright copper surface before attaching them to each other. The easiest thing to use for that is Emory Tape. As soon as you are finished removing any copper oxide from the contact surfaces coat them with a laboratory listed conductive copper connection compound. I have a bottle of KOPR-SHIELD that I'm using right now but the brand is of no importance as long as it is Testing Laboratory Listed for use with Copper connections. Once the mating surfaces are coated make up the connection wrench tight but don't distort the clamp! Brass is quite malleable so that is easy to do. Best practice is to run the GEC buried in the earth and make up the GEC clamp below the surface as a buried connection. The earth itself will then protect the GEC, Rod head, and the clamp from physical damage. To keep the inevitable water which will pass over the rod, clamp and GEC from slowly washing away the protective copper contact compound cover the completed connection with an electrical insulating mastic pad. Squeeze the pad tightly closed around the protected surfaces. That is usually quite easy to do and makes a fully waterproof protector.
There are 2 ways to Do Grounding. One is fully effective and the other is something less than that.
--
Tom Horne W3TDH
Thank you for all these details and your expertise.
I have hundreds of feet of granite beneath my property. There is a safety ground installed by an electrician, but that took diamond drilling at multiple points.
Great job with this video. Thanks for your work. As a new ham this is video is a must watch.
Dave, Could you do a video sometime on grounding in an apartment?
In other videos you never mentioned connecting the station ground rod back to the main entrance ground rod. You touched on it here, but didn't really convey the safety importance of doing so. It is covered well in the ARRL Station Grounding and Bonding book, as well as the other 2 you mentioned on here. My understanding from a couple of master electricians is that it also a requirement of the National Electric Code ( NEC ). SAFETY first! and like you stated here, it doesn't add noise. If anything it can help to reduce it by further lowering the impedance of you main and station ground.
I live in south Florida and I have found out the hard way that a lightning strike can glass over your ground rod. The heat from the lightning makes glass from the sand and the ground is not ground anymore. It is good to check the ground from time to time and just for fun hit it with a hammer. This may break up any glass that formed. It can easily mess with your head when you find a high voltage on your ground rod. Was not high voltage like plate voltage but, when working with 12 equipment 8 voltage on the ground rod I thought was high.
I remember living in Tampa when I was in the Air Force. Lightning capital of the world!
Dave, the part around 4:00 that discusses a fault is incorrect. Simply opening the neutral (open circuit) will not create a dangerous fault and does not pose a shock hazard. It could create an arc fault, however. The "green" ground wire protects you if the hot conductor makes inadvertent contact with exposed metal parts by tripping the breaker since it is ultimately connected to the neutral bus bar in the main panel
Much of your information is misleading. I realize you are not a professional in this field, but
s an electrician, the thing we need to tell people is more about bonding than grounding. Make sure all of your radios, amps, antennas, coax etc are bonded together in the shack and then run a SINGLE heavy gauge wire (6AWG is standard) to the grounding electrode system of your home's electrical system. If you MUST drive your own ground rod (it is not necessary and I simply use an intersystem bonding termination to connect that 6AWG to my home's grounding system) MAKE SURE it is bonded to your home's electrical grounding system, be it ground rods if they are there, or water pipes if they are not. DO NOT drive your own ground rod and only connect it to your ham stuff. This could create a dangerous difference in potential with a nearby surge or lighting strike. Despite what folks will tell you, this won't create all sorts of noise on your system and is the ONLY safe way to do things. You want all your equipment to be at the same potential as your home electrical system, cable and satellite wiring, water pipes, gas pipe, etc. I'd encourage you to check out Mike Holt's videos on bonding and grounding, he is very knowledgeable and has corrected many companies that encourage people to drive their own ground rod (create an isolated grounding system) for equipment that is not only dangerous but can damage expensive equipment.
An excellent discussion and useful advice - thank you 😎👍
Another winning video and just what I needed after viewing Episode 8. Based on watching your videos I'm not ready to order my first 'real' radio and other pieces as a new Technician. (September 27). Just using a handheld right now.
I'm studying for my General exam in December and will be using your videos on the topic as well.
You are clearly so well informed yet your teaching skills make is simple for the newcomer.
Sometimes, when a question pops into my mind, you then proceed to address that precise issue.
A great 'Elmer' (new term for me) for this 'newbie'...or is it 'newly'...or I've also seen "noob".
Anyway thanks for your efforts and for your contribution to the enjoyment and education of so many.
(p.s. looked around on TH-cam for the 'tip jar' and my scan may not be working, however I cannot see it. Clicked the circle with 'go!' inside it and was taken to your website...clicked the tip jar icon their and ended up in a 'do loop' (old term from my early programming days' of an circle with an arrow going around. Wasn't able to complete the transaction, however I will not give up. You have already added much value to me in terms of enjoyable education and 'coaching' and saved me $$$ and I'm sure aggravation and frustration. (Love that pink shirt.)
Paul, I'm delighted you find the videos useful. If you look on my channel page at th-cam.com/users/davecasler, you'll see a box called "Support This Channel." That takes you to the TH-cam version of the tip jar. The tip jar on my website can be reached at dcasler.com/tip-jar/. If you're watching on a mobile device, the links don't work very well, I've found. 73, Dave
Just realized you are in Ouray County. I am in Durango - great places to live! -Jack, Colorado
Hi Dave, Thanks for all your videos, they have been helpful.
Last week I installed a mast to my chimney, and it has been working great. Today I finally got back up to run the ground (6ga stranded) from the mast to my home's single point ground rod. But now, I'm tripping my GFCI in the garage where my station is located. If I disconnect my antenna from the radio, I have light, but when I try to plug it back in I'm left in the dark. I do not have any other grounding options, and have not yet grounded my coax either.
You've got some ground current flowing through the GFI, which will trip it. Something somewhere isn't right. If it's RFI that trips it, you might try replacing it with a new one--the new ones have less sensitivity to RFI if you get a brand name item.
MFJ 931 Artificial ground? I am on first floor no way to connect radio or atu to earth. Previously, I connected my ATU and Radio to a star point , then the short Cooper wire to copper pipe on central heating radiator. However, I disconnected this now as I was told it is not safe. My 66ft antenna wire is connected to 9:1 UNUN, I have a short earth wire connected from UNUN to a ground steak in garden. Thank you. Paul 2E0 PPJ
Thank you so much, I get it now.. awesome stuff sir. 🏆
Exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks for taht great "tutorial". I will use sparking plugs for my dipole.
img.conrad.de/medias/global/ce/2000_2999/2300/2350/2359/235965_LB_00_FB.EPS_1000.jpg
Bravo, one of your best videos yet! Thank-You. N4THC
Far better information than many other web articles
Hi Dave, Good job. Accurate and to the point. Keep it up. John the Electrical Contractor KG7HYF.
Just missing the NFPA/NEC, R56 #6 bonding of the station single-point ground (rod) to AC mains ground? Also best using a thermite bond versus just clamping.
Love your videos, you cover so many topics and everything is concise and salient - some stuff in the art is elusive but you nail things down and never delineate. I can't even go one paragraph without suppersymmetrical tangents of tangents. I think everyone I know started on your videos and practice test spam! You and Randy K7AGE lay it down for bambi operators in an approachable, gradualist format - no nonsense in and out. This is one topic that is far too difficult to get good information on, so much mysticism lore and misinformation to earthing. I had scour the topic for years to come up with some bearing in the field because of all the conflicting information and outright bad sources. Axioms of truth, pearls of wisdom and ramblings to follow: Let me preface this by saying I AM NOT A LICENSED ELECTRICIAN, however, nor am I as of yet a dead duck - but as far as I know DOD standard manuals grounding bonding and shielding for tactical and long haul communications facilities and C4ISR/SCIF all stipulate to bond any penetrations of the facility including gas lines to the single point ground, equipotential plane or equipotential loop. I don't have mine bonded, because my bullocks arent that large and I reason the chain link fence is closer than the gas main, but that being said the manuals iterated that in the event of a strike the primary mechanism of damage is from flash-over between lesser dielectric objects secondary to the strike, and if that flashover should hop to the gas line (which is now at a different potential, in proximity, and thus at risk for streamer formation - because we didnt directly bond it via a low impedance path), it will immediately burn through the point where it impacts that object of different potential - in this case the gas line. Burnouts and burn ins are the main concern according to the DoD - That was my understanding, I could have completely misread the manuals they are a very dense read and I struggled to stay tracking - and it's all textbook - I have never had a direct hit from a strike! Hope if I do i'm just out like a lightswitch and my synapse doesnt even cycle once to process what is happening! Had a near miss yesterday that lit every bulb in a chandelier up almost as bright as 120VAC mains power -Luck would have it I was looking right at the chandelier, switch open - and it lit - Even the E26 LED with a power supply driver built in !! - finally one lightbulb filament vaporized into a plasma and carried the surplus of current in a camera-bulb like flash, saving the rest of the bulbs. I can only imagine what the back EMF would have had to have been. The capacitor in the central air unit exploded as well - that cap saved the AC condenser when it passed most of the AC component of the transient and made the sacrifice. That was a hot night waiting on the furnace man, it hit 89 in the shack with the computers and tubes going. As far as lightning arrestors, I dont mess around anymore, almost lost some gear here I couldnt afford to replace - I only run ICE (Industrial Communications Engineers), even on equipment I always keep disconnected when not in use (all of it). Was operating and looked out the window to see a giant arc across the sky with nothing but a gas discharge tube inline! As for array solutions, they cover the FAA the DoD boeing and some fortune 500's. I have never found an arrestor that covers every practicable damage vector in quite the same way. Shunt fed against earth through a tuned inductor, DC isolated via a blocking capacitor, gas discharge tubes to ground, metal oxide varistors for the rapid rise time transients, a resistor to bleed off dielectric leakage - to do any more just seems...unreasonable. Not all of us can run a $500 brick wall surge protector! KNOWLEDGE SEEKERS AND BAMBIS NOTE - your lightning arrestor ONLY functions as designed if your grounding system is of low impedance and free of current loops. Keep your rods 8 feet or more apart to minimize inter electrode capacitance as the soil is charged around the rods as the volume of earth about them floats in potential during the transient. Also - Keep the inductance from the control operator position to the single point ground as low as possible to keep radiation out of your face! (Use a big wire to prevent cataracts) *Deadly Important:* DO NOT INSTALL A DISCRETE GROUND ROD FOR YOUR EQUIPMENT *UNLESS* THAT GROUND ROD IS BONDED TO THE UTILITY ROD via as low inductance a path as practicable, no less than 6AWG bare copper per the national electrical code. *Failing to make this bond between the discrete rod and the utility rod, and then plugging your radio into a utility power outlet IS DIRECTLY BONDING your discrete rod to the utility rod USING YOUR !!!!!TRANSCEIVER!!!!!*. BOND THE SPGP ROD TO THE UTILITY ROD AND MAKE IT A SATELLITE ROD, NOT A DISCRETE ROD. In a corollary vein - If you have a lot of reflected power and a lot of forward power (IE multiband wire), dont use headphones if you can avoid it - putting those on will put your brain in the RF circuit - logarithmic field strength can be your friend, get that radiator a few thousands of a wavelength off of your grey matter and use a speaker if you don’t need headphones!! Be safe all and if you have doubts, contact a licensed electrician or an inveterate amateur with a few decades under his belt and some experience with solid state gear (I've had a few boat anchor operators tell me they haven't grounded a thing, ever, and they never will until they are grounded - SK!) If you run into one of these boat anchor "Unfounded and Ungrounded" ops - to each his own, no point in pitting fact against dogma - he aint going to learn no new tricks, more likely to take offense to our pressing the point that by allowing his station to float in potential - he is in bad practice). If they are ignorant and don’t want knowledge, it won’t do you any good to be the bearer of it. As far as your insurance goes - the NEC is god. (If you dont follow they hi brow bureaucratic topheavy yankee NEC rules, and your QTH burns right down to the ground, your insurance company will definitely *NOT* cover it). Be safe above all else my coons! I am NOT a paid spokesman for ICE, but I should be because I’m sure even the most casual observer can tell grounding bonding and shielding are the three topics most near and dear to my heart, and I plug Array Solutions to everyone seeking knowledge on the topic or hardening of their facilities/equipment.
Thanks great ground explanation 👍
Looking to upgrade my 2m rig. I'm good on grounding from the antenna to the rod but I would like more information on seeing how to use a ground strap from the station to the rod.
you must bond the station ground to the utility service ground and you got lighting protection wrong also. NEC 2020 covers this you must bond the grounds
Dave, great information and a concise video. How important is it to have the station ground bonded to the utility ground? I had our electric company come out to our house and there is a ground rod inside the housing that the incoming service line and meter are enclosed. The electrician was shocked (figuratively, not literally) to see it in the enclosure and said that there was probably another one within 6-8 feet in either direction. I have not yet been able to locate it and if I crack the seal for the enclosure to bond to the one inside it I will be charged at least $250 for opening the enclosure.
I am fortunate that my shack is immediately inside of the location where I am planning on installing an entrance panel this spring. Grounds will be pretty short. I have an 8’ ground rod ready to go when the warm weather returns and the ground thaws. My shack equipment ground bus will ground to a copper plate within the entrance panel, which will then be grounded to the ground rod that I install. The entrance panel will also have the lightning protection mounted on the copper plate within the panel. The distance from the electrical service panel and my shack panel will be around 8’. Do you think that there will be any issues if I am unable to locate another ground rod for the utility service and I am unable to create that bond or if I do locate a second utility rod near my shack entrance panel would you advise against using it for the station ground directly?
Great video for a rank newbie. Thanks loads!!! - Jack in Colorado
Grounding my favorit topic here in romania groundig 4 antennas has to meet the majured rezistent of 1.2... to 0 ohms usualy 4 a hamm a 8 to 12 ground stakes of 2 m lenth of galvanised steel and abou 20 to 30 m of galvanized plasband gets you there is you hav black eth and not sand or stone. puttig salt and coul in the ground near or on top of the rods helps. cable or galvanized plasband from ground to internal panel needs to be wery thic 25 50 squer milimiter
Question. I have an end fed dipole. The 49:1 unun box is about 25-30 feet away from where my coax enters the window.The rig is about 5 feet away from my window. My question is, do I attach a ground to the unun box ground terminal AND to my transceivers ground lug? If I do that, then both ground rods would be 25-30 feet away from each other.
Another awesome video! Thank you Dave!
Thank's Dave for your explanation.
Thanks Dave. Good info!!
Good evening
Thank you for your videos, always instructive and educational. I'm not yet a Radio Amateur, but I'm learning, learning and still learning ;) I use a translator to understand you, so it's not always easy, but your descriptions and diagrams help me a lot. I'm in the process of grounding my entire station following your advice. You say you also have to ground the antenna. I have a "Loop Antennas MFJ-1782X", do I have to ground it too? Thank you and keep up the good quality videos. Sincerely Niko
I learned so much more than I meant to.
Thanks
Very good video on station grounding. Thank you for making this. 73 W5SRT
Awesome video Dave! Thank you!
Hello Dave,
Thank you for your contribution to the ham radio community, your videos are a pleasure to watch and your oratory skills are remarkable.
My question is related to safety ground: What if I operate in a location that does not permit driving an 8' copper ground rod into the earth (eg Apartment or condo) or if I'm operating portable (not mobile) How does safety ground apply in these situations.
Thanks
+kk4dbi The safety ground is the AC utility power ground, and is connected via the third "ground" wire in your power supply. An external RF ground is nice, but if you don't have one, you may be able to do without.