you should teal have an earth ground, as it is required in most cases for NEC codes, and if you violate those codes your home owner’s insurance can get out of paying for any damages if you have a lightning strike. When I took my strike here there was no investigation, but the damages were only minor electronics and a computer. not enough to send an agent. We he’d storm damage here a couple years ago which caused our ceiling to cave in in part of the living room and in that case they did send someone to asses the damage.. It also helps a lot with noise pickup and helps keep any strikes from causing more damage, like burning your house down.  It is a good reminder to me now that I got my hf antenna back up and running that I need to get a grind system. currently my feed line is outside unless I am actually on the air, which is something that I definitely recommend when not in use if you don’t have a ground, ground your antenna outside to bleed off static charges and keep the energy away from your home. obviously this is not a real solution, but until you get the ground done you should consider that. Wehen i took the lightning strike my feed line was grounded outside, something I had done no more than 3 minutes before the strike. I found pieces of my feed line scattered al over the yard, melted from the inside rout so fast that aloof the feed line was partially intact. it makes a nice display at our hamfest and at club meetings for safety.

On Feb 6, 2014, at 9:25 PM, Kent Plemmons <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Michael,
> 
> Those are some of the things that I've heard too.  I don't know if I could
> use the random wire idea as I don't have much of a ground as although I'm on
> the main floor of my ouse, there is a distance of about 25' before I could
> get to an earth ground.  Should I have any RFI problems I'll probably try to
> use some type of a counterpoise.  I'd like to have an earth ground but from
> what I've read, my ground wire might turn out to be another antenna!
> 
> Thank you Michael,
> Kent
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Michael Thurman
> Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2014 4:47 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: 600 ohm ladderline
> 
> close   I use 450 ohm window line and wouldn=92t go back to coax for an =
> hf antenna for anything. Going from coax to laser line was the single =
> biggest improvement I have ever seen when you want to use one antenna on =
> multiple bands. it also offers the advantage  of being able to use a =
> random wire tuner an feed both legs  tied together as the random wire =
> against a good ground for bands that you can=92t do well in a standard =
> dipole configuration. They cal that a marconi, and it can often be =
> effective if you  want to run 160 meters on an 80 meter dipole.. = Ovioulsy
> it is a compromise, but sometimes a compromise is better than = nothing :)
> On Feb 6, 2014, at 1:45 PM, Kent Plemmons <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Do any of you all use 600 ohm ladderline and if so how do you like it 
>> =
> and to
>> what is it connected.
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>> Thank you,
>> =20
>> Kent KK4FFF
>> =20
>> Clyde NC
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20