All:
 Original article from: Wayne Sarosi 
 Reposted by Rob Dennis,Moderator HAM_TECH,for use of the FIDO HAM_TECH echo.
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SUBJECT: Amateur Radio Shack Designs,part 2
GROUNDING:  The ground system to your shack is as important as the electrical
system. But,keep in mind that are two ground systems here.
 First,there is the electrical ground which concerns your power system and
second,there is the RF ground.
 In most Ham Shacks these two grounding systems are separate and sometimes by
a considerable distance in relation to your shack/home.
 The grounding hole in the electrical socket (see figure 1) is NOT an RF
grounding point!
    Figure 1:             o  <-------- Ground
                         | |
                         ^ ^
                         | |__________ Neutral (Large slot)
                         |
                         |____________ Hot (Small slot)
 This arrangement may be inverted in you home/shack. I prefer to see where 
he
ground plugs in first being a rather tall individual.
 Neutral is basically at ground potential and a meter reading with a VOM will
show little or no votage potential difference between ground and neutral.
 Ground to hot or neutral to hot will exhibit 115VAC (plus or minus the 
ormal
variations from you local power and light company).
 The reason you DO NOT want to use the electrical ground for your radio shack
is that there is potential for this ground to carry an electrical potential!
 Also,this ground can be up to 100 feet from the socket in a house and up to
600 feet or more in an apartment complex! Holy longwire,Batman!
 And that ground is connected to many other people's dwellings!
 Holy Bitch and Gripe from the neighbors,Batman!
****************************************
 I have gone to many a ham's homes on RFI problems only to find their 
avorite
grounding point is the commercial ground. I remove it and have them run a
separate ground. The RFI goes away. Please keep this in mind.
****************************************
 Your RF ground should also be a central point,BUT NOT THE COMMERCIAL GROUND!
 Single point grounding is the best bet to keep RFI under control,provides a
point where there is no DC potential,and provides the shortest point to 
round
for the transceivers and antennas.
 When you consider your shack design,locate the ground such that the run is 
s
short as possible. In apartments,a cold water pipe beats no ground at all and
beats the commercial ground by a mile. Be sure to check that the commercial
ground is not the cold water pipe also (This I've seen many times,$$ savings
during construction).
Grounding Layout: Again,I'll use my shack as the example.
                                                            |
                                                            |  Tower
                                                            |    X
    ---------------------------------------------------------    |
                                |                -----------|----|
                                |              Ground wire  |
                                |                           |
                                |                           |
                                |                           |
                                |                           |
                                |                           |
                                |                           |
                                |                           |
                                |---------------------------|
                                                            |
 The ground Wire is a #6 Copper wire connected to a 10 foot ground rod into
the water table (Florida water table is 4 ft). The tower is also connected to
the same ground point. The ground rod is located next to the tower as close 
s
possible outside the cement base.
 The base is a 1946 design ground distribution system and is electrical
connected to the ground rod.
 All equipment from VHF to HF linears are connected to the system at one 
oint
in the shack and one point in the ground.
 DC potential is zero.
-WS
--- GoldED 2.42.G1219
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