BLIND-HAMS Archives

For blind ham radio operators

BLIND-HAMS@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Condense Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Sender:
For blind ham radio operators <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
Jim Gammon <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 28 Nov 2013 00:46:51 -0800
Message-ID:
Content-Type:
text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed
Reply-To:
For blind ham radio operators <[log in to unmask]>
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (176 lines)
Yah, you rock Butch! Jim WA6EKS

----- Original Message -----
From: Butch Bussen <[log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 19:33:45 -0800
Subject: Re: Re-station ground

Since we're on shocking stories...  I was a little kid and I 
could see
light in those days.  I had one of those night lights that was a 
sheep
and had a place to screw in one of those little threaded bulbs.  
I guess
I plugged it in the wall and there wasn't a bulb in the thing, so 
I
thought I'd stick a finger nail file in that little hole.  I can 
still
remember this bright flash before every light in the house went 
out.  We
had fuses in those days, and the whole house was probably on two 
fuses.

73
Butch
WA0VJR
Node 3148
Wallace, ks.


On
Wed, 27 Nov 2013, Steve Dresser wrote:

 I'm surprised the cord didn't weld itself together or set 
something on fire.
 Amazing what we try when we don't know better.

 Steve

 ----- Original Message -----
 From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]
 To: <[log in to unmask]
 Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2013 01:50
 Subject: Re: Re-station ground


 Hmmh, I couldn't say about that but it brought back a memory of
 when I was in middle school.  I can talk about this because it's
 been over 40 years ago.  We had a class room with metal 
counters,
 maybe they all had them.  I had found an electrical cord with a
 plug on one end and bare wires on the other, a dangerous thing 
in
 any case but especially in the hands of a kid in jr high.  Well,
 I plugged the cord in and touched the wires to the counter top
 and man how the sparks did fly!
 But, actually to be more scientific about it, to see if one wire
 completed the circuit and would probably mean the countertop was
 grounded, I would have had to try each wire separately on the
 countertop which I may have done, but after all these years, I
 don't remember.  What I finally did was to tie the ends together
 then give the plug to another student and have them plug it in.
 You could hear the circuit vibrate in the wall for maybe seemed
 like 20 seconds or so, longer than I would have expected, before
 it quit for the rest of the school year.  Jim WA6EKS
 ----- Original Message -----
 From: Colin McDonald <[log in to unmask]
 To: [log in to unmask]
 Date sent: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 23:23:26 -0700
 Subject: Re: Re-station ground

 is a stainless steel countertop generally grounded to the house
 electrical
 system?

 73
 Colin, V A6BKX
 --------------------------------------------------
 From: "Steve Dresser" <[log in to unmask]
 Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 2:59 PM
 To: <[log in to unmask]
 Subject: Re: Re-station ground

 Colin,

 I'd caution against using the grounding of the electrical
 outlets as a
 station ground.  I lived in a house where the electrical ground
 of the
 outlets had 150 volts which I measured between it and a
 stainless steel
 counter in the kitchen.  It turned out that the house's
 electrical system
 wasn't grounded to anything in the known universe.

 Steve

 ----- Original Message -----
 From: "Colin McDonald" <[log in to unmask]
 To: <[log in to unmask]
 Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 16:31
 Subject: Re: Re-station ground


 you already have a ground between the tuner and the radio via
 the coax
 shield...
 You already have full chassis ground through the ground prong on
 the  AC
 power.
 However, to avoid RF hot spots on the chassis of your equipment,
 it is
 advisable to use another earth ground of some kind for your
 equipment...either via a ground rod, or to the main electrical
 ground of
 the
 house such as the city side of the water meter on the cold water
 pipe, or
 connected to the ground rod used by the electrical of the house
 if there
 is
 one.
 Also, having a separate ground rod just for the station is good
 because
 that
 can also be used for both RF and electrical ground and will help
 in the
 case
 of a nearby lightening strike etc.
 You need to use a ground bus, and have a wire from each piece of
 equipment
 connected to that common bus...do not daisy chain the grounds
 together.
 In
 other words, your grounding has to be paralel, not series.
 If it's electrical ground, the wire length doesn't matter at
 all...but if
 you are going after an RF ground, the length of the ground wire
 may, if
 you
 are using a non-resonant antenna, or latter line or long wire
 and a
 tuner,
 effect the tuning of the antenna.

 Often an additional ground for the station equipment is not
 necesary as
 the
 AC ground takes care of it, but sometimes you may need it if you
 find you
 are having issues with RFI in your audio, or excessive noise on
 receive
 or
 if you are causing RFI to other electronics in the house or with
 your
 neighbors.

 73
 Colin, V A6BKX
 --------------------------------------------------
 From: "Mike Ryan" <[log in to unmask]
 Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 1:10 PM
 To: <[log in to unmask]
 Subject: Re-station ground

 So if I have a ground wire running from my ATU's ground stud to
 the back
 of
 the rig's ground stud, considering my rig has a built in power
 supply
 and
 a
 3 prong plug, this will be fine?

 Mike

ATOM RSS1 RSS2