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
>>
>
>
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