On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:23:02 -0700 (PDT), Bill Carnett wrote:
>The station
>ground is an 8 foot rod approximately 5 feet from the
>unit. Connection is via a 4 ga solid wire and 2 inch
>ribbon to a SPG bulkhead plate. The house ground is
>via the AC circut, approximately 15 feet from shack
>and utlizes 2 - 8 foot ground rods approximately 8
>feet apart. BTW, building inspector told us we didn't
>need any of that lightening stuff "we don't require it
>any more." go figure?
I haven't been following this thread up to now, but I'm beginning
to see a possible clue to your problems. All I know about StepIR's
that they are mostly made of non-conductive structure, and use
motors to tune the elements. I don't know a thing about the motor
controllers or their wiring. So please take my comments in that
context.
The word "ground" can be VERY confusing when used in the context
of transmitting signals from one point to another. Also, the use
of the EARTH as a signal conductor is a really bad idea.
1) In the context of your motor controllers, what they are calling
"ground" should really be called "common." If they have done it
right, it probably has no relationship to the EARTH at all. These
motor control wires should have no connection to anything that is
connected to the earth, except possibly at the controller (up to
the designer of the controller). I'd bet that they are not
connected to any conductive frame or mast at the antenna, but that
might be an interesting thing to probe with a DC meter.
2) Your tower ground rods should definitely be BONDED to your
building ground and your station ground. In this context, the word
BOND means a connection that is PHYSICALLY ROBUST and has the
LOWEST PRACTICAL IMPEDANCE over the widest range of frequencies.
That
3) Your mains power ground should be bonded to your station
ground, and BOND means the same thing here that it does in #2. In
other words, ALL of your EARTH connections should be bonded
together.
As I see it, there are two or three possible causes of your
problem.
4) A connection (including a capacitive connection) between the
control wiring and the earth is VERY likely to introduce noise
into the control wiring.
5) Excessive capacitance in the cable connecting the antenna
motors to the controller.
6) Excessive resistance in the cable connecting the antenna motors
to the controller.
7) Noise pickup on the cable itself (most likely power-related,
but possibly from electrically noisy equipment). Noise pickup on
the cable is greately reduced if each motor runs on its own
twisted pair. Shielding of these pairs does not matter. BUT, it is
quite important that neither conductor of the pair have any
connection to EARTH.
8) At very low frequencies (power and power harmonics), current
will follow the lowest RESISTANCE path. At high audio frequencies
and above, currents will follow the lowest IMPEDANCE path. If the
circuit is connected by a transmission line (for example, a
twisted pair cable), that will be the lowest impedance path.
As others have noted, this is a matter for StepIR's engineers to
unravel. But it's important that we not screw up their system by
miswiring it, or miswiring stuff around it.
73,
Jim Brown K9YC
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