Wow, finally I understand all this grounding!!!! This is your best grounding video , tops all your other grounding videos , you actually were able to get through my thinking ! I have watched other TH-camr videos on grounding but it’s this one that got through to me , now I understand it totally! A SERIOUS THANK YOU !!
Great depiction of basic grounding... "ground at the ground"! My only comment would be, in regards to the bonding wire from the utility panel ground rod to the lightning arrestor rod: Use bare SOLID #6 copper wire, rather than stranded... and YES, bury it a few to several inches below grade, as much as possible (this actually "adds" to your grounding effectiveness). Directly burying bare-stranded copper wire is never recommended, as moisture in the soil can cause corrosion between the copper strands in the wire, leading to higher impedance and reduced conductive efficiency. The #6 (or even #4) bare, solid copper is nearly always readily-available at the home improvement stores. Lastly, "bare" copper wire has no designators, such as "THHN" or "THWN". Those designations refer to the type (and/or properties) of the insulation on the electrical wire, and since this is BARE wire, there is no designation. It's just... bare! LOL. 73, Alan
Thank you,Dave. You might mention when installing or working on antennas, to have the antenna grounded to avoid static shocks. These generally are not lethal, but may be a distraction and lead to a fall from a ladder, tower or roof, etc. that can be fatal. N0QFT
4:32 So many amateur operators do not bond their equipment ground to the house utility ground and this is the big mistake that could save their equipment in a lightening strike. It is almost like you took a page out of the NEC. Thanks for explaining and including this very important step in setting up a shack on your property to prevent voltage potentials between points in your setup.
Worth noting that if your grounding isn't up to code, and you take a lightning strike that starts a house fire, your home insurance company *may* be legally allowed to just walk away. Contracts & laws may vary, but meeting NEC or local codes is always worth a thought.
I disconnected everything when not in use. Can’t help myself. This stuff cost a lot of money and I don’t want to break it. The coax cables are taken loose and attached to a ground outside the shack when a storm rolls up.
Hi Dave, as a new amateur radio operator I am over whelmed with it all. It seems there's to much to learn to fast, without destroying my radios. So here's a quick (I hope) problem I have. I live in an upstairs apartment with a good sized covered patio. The entire building is concrete. I have a metal railing around my patio which is a covered patio. I don't have access to the ground below. How can I ground my antenna? I have a vertical (on the roof) and getting ready to put up a Nelson 1/2 wave end fed. Please help me before I ruin my eqpt. 73sss, KZ5MLS
Insure your equipment regardless then try tro ground it. ARRL has insurance but I think that HRIA is better as you insure all by amount rather than filling in big lists. Google those acronyms with "insurance" and you'll get results. I insure my equipment for about 50 bucks a year.
Great video Dave...my new home of 5 years is in SW Florida in the lightning capital of the US....keep up the flying updates. Can't wait for your solo video. Paul K1YOU
Mike Holt has great content on his site on grounding too. Single point ground is essential! Trust me, I lost about $40,000.00 in equipment and appliances by not having proper grounding.
VOLTAGES =A DIFFERENCE IN POTENTIAL BETWEEN TWO POINTS! ! If everything is grounded together with as large a wire as possible and as short as possible, there is NO VOLTAGE between them! If there is No VOLTAGE then the possibility of damage is very low! Also the possibility of you being hurt or killed is low! If everyone would just look at the definition of VOLTAGE! I have seen the fitting blown off coax by lightning and the radio had very little damage! Because everything inside the steal box was grounded together! There was little VOLTAGE between things inside the radio! I said as large a wire as possible for a reason. Running a 2 gauge wire will be better than a 6. But if you go nuts the grounding wire will cost more than the radios! The information he gave is great! But I have seen many things that show that lightning DOESN'T LIKE TO MAKE SHARP TURNS! So as he showed the coax going to the ground! There are less turns for the lightning to make from the surge protector and Ground! A half a turn is a small indicator! It will slow the rapid change in current! May not change it much, but when it wants to go from 0 amps to 1000 and back to 0 in milliseconds! How much do you want to slow it down?
A good ground not only protects the home and equipment - it also helps keep the noise down. Electrical grounding isn't an item one should skimp on - build it to meet or exceed the N.E.C, and your local area's building code specifications.
THHN is a thermoplastic high-heat-resistant, nylon-coated wire so bare number six can't be THHN since there is no insulation on it, just a clarification.
Oh man I love these videos, but not when they brings up so many ancillary questions! LOL I live in a townhouse and I don't think I can connect my utility in the front to the back radio grounds without running under the house. A puzzlement.... 73 de N2NLQ
Great video, thanks. With audio applications, ground loops can be a real challenge. Is this something to consider when grounding your shack? Or does interconnecting multiple grounding points (as this video suggests) have no ill side effects on the performance of the radio?
Hey I’ve got a question, an antenna I bought, an MFJ1982HP, an end fed half wave and I’m not sure where to connect it to a ground rod. It has a lug on the matching transformer, but the manual says that’s for a counterpoise.
You're wrong. RF grounding is done via flat straps to maximize surface area for RF current to flow on. Turn it into an antenna, and it will radiate even better than round, all other things being equal.
@@MrJaz8088 Sure, but that is not what we're talking about. Where you are wanting a ground connection to be low impedance a large conductor, especially wide area, is good. But KE0OG was talking about a long conductor being an antenna. What he meant was the lightning surge current flowing down the long ground lead will radiate. That radiation will couple to other conductors in the house= bad. Even if was a huge conductor such as a tower it will still radiate right into the house. If you are bonding two ground rods, or connecting your single point ground to a ground rod you can benefit from a wide strap (low inductance conductor). This will minimize the voltage drop over the length of the conductor, called the L di/dt drop. A wide strap has low L, resulting in a lower v drop. Ok? We still friends? 73 de k2xt
There is no such thing as THHN bare wire. THHN is the type of insulation. Grounding of radio equipment installed on the second floor or higher in a structure is problematic in every case. It’s difficult both to establish true ground potential at a point distant from the ground grid/ ground rod. This is true just at a DC perspective. Adding RF to the equation makes it even more difficult. The ground wire itself can become resonant at multiple frequencies and harmonics, plus RF is much more affected by skin effect and does not like to travel uniformly through a wire. In many cases, it becomes necessary to create a tuned grounding conductor to eliminate stray RF from a second floor installation. I would be very wary of placing any confidence in a #6 grounding conductor that might see a lightning strike. I’d use nothing less than # 4/0 bare copper. That’s the minimum conductor size for air terminals that are part of a lightning protection system. It must run straight and the shortest possible distance to ground (actual earth). Running the coax to ground level and installing the arrestor there, and then running the coax back up to a second floor installation makes little sense. It just adds a bunch of loss to the transmission line.
Did you delete my comment about bonding wire gauge, and keep all those crypto currency replies on a lot of peoples comments? I didn't realize you felt threatened by good information and favored spam.
Wow, finally I understand all this grounding!!!! This is your best grounding video , tops all your other grounding videos , you actually were able to get through my thinking ! I have watched other TH-camr videos on grounding but it’s this one that got through to me , now I understand it totally! A SERIOUS THANK YOU !!
@David Casler i'm reporting this fake account!
Great depiction of basic grounding... "ground at the ground"!
My only comment would be, in regards to the bonding wire from the utility panel ground rod to the lightning arrestor rod: Use bare SOLID #6 copper wire, rather than stranded... and YES, bury it a few to several inches below grade, as much as possible (this actually "adds" to your grounding effectiveness). Directly burying bare-stranded copper wire is never recommended, as moisture in the soil can cause corrosion between the copper strands in the wire, leading to higher impedance and reduced conductive efficiency.
The #6 (or even #4) bare, solid copper is nearly always readily-available at the home improvement stores.
Lastly, "bare" copper wire has no designators, such as "THHN" or "THWN". Those designations refer to the type (and/or properties) of the insulation on the electrical wire, and since this is BARE wire, there is no designation. It's just... bare! LOL.
73,
Alan
What they said... Great video once again. 73, KJ7YBK
Thanks Dave! Excellent video.
Came for the grounding, ended up subscribing. Cheers.
My lightening arrester is disconnecting coax in bad weather 😂😂
@David Casler this isn't real the dave, if anyone may not be on their guard
Thanks . You are the man with the answers. I should say the rest of the answer so we can understand. KD9HWH said that.
Your account is compromised Dave!
wow this is a priceless answer
Great info! Many thanks 🙏❤️
Thank you,Dave.
You might mention when installing or working on antennas, to have the antenna grounded to avoid static shocks. These generally are not lethal, but may be a distraction and lead to a fall from a ladder, tower or roof, etc. that can be fatal. N0QFT
I had a brother-in-law who was a utility company lineman. He was often heard to say it's not the shock that hurts, it's the fall afterward.
4:32 So many amateur operators do not bond their equipment ground to the house utility ground and this is the big mistake that could save their equipment in a lightening strike. It is almost like you took a page out of the NEC. Thanks for explaining and including this very important step in setting up a shack on your property to prevent voltage potentials between points in your setup.
Worth noting that if your grounding isn't up to code, and you take a lightning strike that starts a house fire, your home insurance company *may* be legally allowed to just walk away. Contracts & laws may vary, but meeting NEC or local codes is always worth a thought.
I disconnected everything when not in use. Can’t help myself. This stuff cost a lot of money and I don’t want to break it.
The coax cables are taken loose and attached to a ground outside the shack when a storm rolls up.
Just get an Alpha Delta antenna switch. They ground to a lightening arrestor when switched, "off".
I watched this, it was good
Hi Dave, as a new amateur radio operator I am over whelmed with it all. It seems there's to much to learn to fast, without destroying my radios. So here's a quick (I hope) problem I have. I live in an upstairs apartment with a good sized covered patio. The entire building is concrete. I have a metal railing around my patio which is a covered patio. I don't have access to the ground below. How can I ground my antenna? I have a vertical (on the roof) and getting ready to put up a Nelson 1/2 wave end fed. Please help me before I ruin my eqpt. 73sss, KZ5MLS
Insure your equipment regardless then try tro ground it. ARRL has insurance but I think that HRIA is better as you insure all by amount rather than filling in big lists. Google those acronyms with "insurance" and you'll get results. I insure my equipment for about 50 bucks a year.
Great video Dave...my new home of 5 years is in SW Florida in the lightning capital of the US....keep up the flying updates. Can't wait for your solo video.
Paul K1YOU
great talk! thanks!
Mike Holt has great content on his site on grounding too. Single point ground is essential!
Trust me, I lost about $40,000.00 in equipment and appliances by not having proper grounding.
VOLTAGES =A DIFFERENCE IN POTENTIAL BETWEEN TWO POINTS! ! If everything is grounded together with as large a wire as possible and as short as possible, there is NO VOLTAGE between them! If there is No VOLTAGE then the possibility of damage is very low! Also the possibility of you being hurt or killed is low! If everyone would just look at the definition of VOLTAGE! I have seen the fitting blown off coax by lightning and the radio had very little damage! Because everything inside the steal box was grounded together! There was little VOLTAGE between things inside the radio! I said as large a wire as possible for a reason. Running a 2 gauge wire will be better than a 6. But if you go nuts the grounding wire will cost more than the radios! The information he gave is great! But I have seen many things that show that lightning DOESN'T LIKE TO MAKE SHARP TURNS! So as he showed the coax going to the ground! There are less turns for the lightning to make from the surge protector and Ground! A half a turn is a small indicator! It will slow the rapid change in current! May not change it much, but when it wants to go from 0 amps to 1000 and back to 0 in milliseconds! How much do you want to slow it down?
What is a "lightening arrestor " ? Is it the same as a ground rod?
A good ground not only protects the home and equipment - it also helps keep the noise down. Electrical grounding isn't an item one should skimp on - build it to meet or exceed the N.E.C, and your local area's building code specifications.
Only common mode noise.
Holy crap!
You look just like Steve Wozniak! 😳
Makes sense. They do not call it GROUND for nothing.
THHN is a thermoplastic high-heat-resistant, nylon-coated wire so bare number six can't be THHN since there is no insulation on it, just a clarification.
So is it better to use bare copper or THHN?
@@robertcornoyer5668 Bare copper solid.
Oh man I love these videos, but not when they brings up so many ancillary questions! LOL
I live in a townhouse and I don't think I can connect my utility in the front to the back radio grounds without running under the house.
A puzzlement....
73 de N2NLQ
Great video, thanks. With audio applications, ground loops can be a real challenge. Is this something to consider when grounding your shack? Or does interconnecting multiple grounding points (as this video suggests) have no ill side effects on the performance of the radio?
Hey I’ve got a question, an antenna I bought, an MFJ1982HP, an end fed half wave and I’m not sure where to connect it to a ground rod. It has a lug on the matching transformer, but the manual says that’s for a counterpoise.
Just ground the coax like shown in this video, that's all that's needed...
When using a dipole, do you have to ground ?
Any antenna, of any kind.
If you use Flat Bar and Not Round or Wire then it will not become an Antenna
Sure it will. Current moving in a conductor radiates.
@@feeatlastfeeatlast5283 There is a Reason why Earth Straps are Flat
You're wrong. RF grounding is done via flat straps to maximize surface area for RF current to flow on. Turn it into an antenna, and it will radiate even better than round, all other things being equal.
@@samgrieg2542 ok
@@MrJaz8088 Sure, but that is not what we're talking about. Where you are wanting a ground connection to be low impedance a large conductor, especially wide area, is good. But KE0OG was talking about a long conductor being an antenna. What he meant was the lightning surge current flowing down the long ground lead will radiate. That radiation will couple to other conductors in the house= bad. Even if was a huge conductor such as a tower it will still radiate right into the house.
If you are bonding two ground rods, or connecting your single point ground to a ground rod you can benefit from a wide strap (low inductance conductor). This will minimize the voltage drop over the length of the conductor, called the L di/dt drop. A wide strap has low L, resulting in a lower v drop. Ok? We still friends? 73 de k2xt
There is no such thing as THHN bare wire. THHN is the type of insulation.
Grounding of radio equipment installed on the second floor or higher in a structure is problematic in every case. It’s difficult both to establish true ground potential at a point distant from the ground grid/ ground rod. This is true just at a DC perspective. Adding RF to the equation makes it even more difficult. The ground wire itself can become resonant at multiple frequencies and harmonics, plus RF is much more affected by skin effect and does not like to travel uniformly through a wire.
In many cases, it becomes necessary to create a tuned grounding conductor to eliminate stray RF from a second floor installation.
I would be very wary of placing any confidence in a #6 grounding conductor that might see a lightning strike. I’d use nothing less than # 4/0 bare copper. That’s the minimum conductor size for air terminals that are part of a lightning protection system. It must run straight and the shortest possible distance to ground (actual earth).
Running the coax to ground level and installing the arrestor there, and then running the coax back up to a second floor installation makes little sense. It just adds a bunch of loss to the transmission line.
Did you delete my comment about bonding wire gauge, and keep all those crypto currency replies on a lot of peoples comments? I didn't realize you felt threatened by good information and favored spam.