"TOM WALKER" bravely wrote to "BEN RITCHEY" (04 Jul 05  08:17:00)
 --- on the heady topic of "Re: Antenna"

 BR>| MR> The real trick with any antenna is to have a proper grounding system.

 BR>Should/can I just tie circuit ground to an Earth ground? AC or DC side tap?
 BR>you can see I know just enough about electrons to be dangerous 

 TW> I would not mess with any radio that didn't have an External Ground
 TW> connection. It can be Dangerious.
 TW> And since you are talking about a Weather radio picking up local
 TW> contacts the importance of a ground is lessened.
 TW> Now for a DX hunter looking for that rare station it can be Very
 TW> important. Long wire antennas typicaly don't require any special
 TW> ground plane also.


Tom, *all* unbalanced antennas require a ground to work properly.
Without a ground the receiver loses a lot of signal because the
impedance is too high. The only ground that exists then is whatever
impedance there is into the AC powerline and the antenna emf is lost.
Worse yet the AC powerline is full of noise and now in series with the
lower impedance of the antenna which recycles it back to the radio.

 M*i*k*e

... ?pu gnikcab yb naem uoy tahw siht sI
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