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[Towertalk] Ground loops

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [Towertalk] Ground loops
From: K4BEV@aol.com (K4BEV@aol.com)
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 10:24:53 EDT
All of these posts concerning grounding of towers and equipment, and others 
about avoidance of "ground loops" is confusing me a bit.

My house, and most likely yours, is fed by the power company through a 
transformer and a ground wire. That ground wire is connected to a ground rod 
at my service entrance. My circuit breaker box is also connected to this rod. 
The neutral and ground wires throughout the house terminate at the box and 
are therefore connected to the ground rod.
My tower is grounded through a series of ground rods. Coax is grounded at the 
top of the tower and at the base. A wire from the rod closest to the tower is 
run to the point where coax and rotor control cables enter the house, where 
they are again grounded. A wire goes from this point to the ground rod at the 
service entrance.

So far so good.

Each piece of equipment in the shack has a ground wire which goes directly to 
the coax entry point. Most equipment here is equipped with a 3 wire plug for 
power. Two of these wires go back to the service entrance ground rod.
Have I not just created a ground loop? Or one big ground loop and several 
small ones?

Would it be better to run a 220 line to the shack and pick up ALL of my 
station grounds at the point where the coaxes enter the building?
Should the wire that connects the shack equipment back to the service 
entrance ground come from the ground connection at the tower instead of at 
the coax entrance?
How do y'all do it??

Take care,
Don - K4BEV


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