The problem you could have with the ground looping of the Astron negative to
its cabinet, and thus to AC ground, is that in case of a lightning surge,
you have another path to earth which could attract a side streamer of the
main hit.
This is exactly what happened at our club station. Our "Mr. Ground It" had
copper straps on all the chassis and negatives. The lightning came in a
coax shield, went to an Astron chassis, and back out the negative lead and
fried a 2m radio connected to the Astron. The PC board ground trace was
vaporized. However, the radio still worked as long as you had a coax
connected to its antenna jack, to provide a negative path for the DC supply!
The regulator chip in the Astron was also fried as was a resistor and a cap.
I prefer to block the RF path on the Astron power leads by use of twisted DC
cables, and Bead chokes as needed. Use of balanced antennas is done with
any Astron powered rigs I have, as well.
Stuart
K5KVH
Stuart
K5KVH
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
|