Lou,
How did you know that your long ground wire wasn't acting like a ground at
freq above 21mhz?
What do people do about rf grounds for vhf/uhf? A quarter wave on 2 meters
less less than 2 feet. I doubt many people have the rig less than 2 feet
from a ground rod.
73 Chris w1gm
On Sun, Feb 13, 2005 at 10:59:02PM -0500, Louis Kim Kline wrote:
> Hi Bob.
>
> The problem with using the ground pin on the AC outlet for your station
> ground is that it was never intended for RF frequencies, but was rather
> intended for electrical safety at power line frequencies--60 Hz, in other
> words. At these frequencies, even very long runs of ground wire pose
> little problem, but at radio frequencies, grounds should be less than a
> quarter wave long to behave like a ground.
>
> By the way, the idea of using coax for a ground and placing capacitors
> across the coax at each end is not a new idea. I saw it in a 73 magazine
> probably about 20 years ago, or maybe a little more.
>
> John is right about long runs of even solid wire not behaving like a
> ground, though. At my first location, I was stuck on the second floor, and
> had about a 20 ft. run of solid wire to an 8 ft. ground stake that was
> driven into the ground. I couldn't get it to act like a ground at
> frequencies above 21 MHz to save my sole. I did get the capacitors to try
> the coaxial ground, but ended up moving before I ever got it
> installed.Since my station is now in my basement, establishing ground is no
> problem at all.
> 73, de Lou K2LKK
>
> At 06:52 PM 2/13/2005 -0800, you wrote:
> >This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> >
> >------=_NextPart_000_01B7_01C511FD.1AEF5DE0
> >Content-Type: text/plain;
> > charset="iso-8859-1"
> >Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> >
> >Thanks, John for those wordes of encurriagement. This stuff would have =
> >bin
> >a lot easier to learn about 15 years ago and yes, I will eventually get =
> >it.
> >Are you telling me that the water pipe isn't good enough for a ground? =
> >If
> >it is plastic of course it is not but most codes still call for copper. =
> >I
> >am assuming that you are living in an apartment but I could be wrong =
> >about
> >that. I know that from the third floor the ground would be resident for
> >some ham frequencies and act as an antenna but I didn't know that the =
> >second
> >floor posed problems. What really dumfounds me, and of course, I am new =
> >and
> >know very little electricity, why isn't that round third wire connection =
> >in
> >all wall plugs as good as you can get? What good is it anyway if it =
> >isn't?
> >Again; what would you do if you lived in a high rise building on the say
> >60th floor? Would ham radio be completely out of the question? Well, I
> >better get back to listening to that tape on the THF6 that I bought from
> >Handiham. It's ok but it obviously wasn't made by and actually for a
> >totally blind person.
> >------=_NextPart_000_01B7_01C511FD.1AEF5DE0
> >Content-Type: text/html;
> > charset="iso-8859-1"
> >Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> >
> ><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
> >Thanks, John for those wordes of = encurriagement. This=20 stuff would
> >have bin
> >a lot easier to learn about 15 years ago and = yes, I will=20 eventually
> >get it.
> >Are you telling me that the water pipe isn't good = enough=20 for a
> >ground? If
> >it is plastic of course it is not but most = codes still=20 call for
> >copper. I
> >am assuming that you are living in an = apartment but=20 I could be wrong
> >about
> >that. I know that from the third floor = the=20 ground would be resident for
> >some ham frequencies and act as an = antenna but I=20 didn't know that the
> >second
> >floor posed problems. What really = dumfounds=20 me, and of course, I am
> >new and
> >know very little electricity, why = isn't that=20 round third wire
> >connection in
> >all wall plugs as good as you can = get? =20 What good is it anyway if it
> >isn't?
> >Again; what would you do if you = lived in=20 a high rise building on the say
> >60th floor? Would ham radio be=20 completely out of the question? Well, I
> >better get back to = listening to=20 that tape on the THF6 that I bought from
> >Handiham. It's ok but = it=20 obviously wasn't made by and actually for a
> >totally blind=20 person.
> >
> >------=_NextPart_000_01B7_01C511FD.1AEF5DE0--
>
> Louis Kim Kline
> A.R.S. K2LKK
> Home e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Work e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Work Telephone: (585) 697-5753
|