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Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding of Amateur Radio installations

To: "'Don Havlicek'" <n8de@thepoint.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding of Amateur Radio installations
From: "Gary Schafer" <garyschafer@comcast.net>
Reply-to: garyschafer@comcast.net
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 12:05:25 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Don,

The easiest thing for you to do would be to install your panel as you
propose where the cables enter the house and put the protectors on the panel
for all the RF and rotor cables etc.

Having the power run underground a long way like you have will help a lot in
reducing anything coming in on the power line as most of the energy will be
coupled to ground by the long run. However the best way to protect against
anything that still makes it thru is to run a power cable from your service
entrance panel or from a convenient outlet in the shack over to your single
point ground panel. Install your AC protectors for that line on the same
panel as your coax protectors are mounted on.
Take ALL of your power for everything in the shack from a power line run
from the single point ground panel ONLY. 

If you have any cable TV lines, phone lines etc. coming into the shack also
run them first to the single point ground panel and place a protector on
them. Now you have everything in the shack referenced to the cable entrance
panel.  That is what a single point ground is!!  

Now place a good ground field right below the single point ground panel with
as many radials and ground rods as you can justify putting in. Run wide
copper strap from the panel to the ground field. Also run a ground wire
buried in the ground over to your service entrance panel and phone ground
and tie it to the single point ground panel in the shack.

By the way there should be a ground rod at your service entrance panel on
the house even though there is one at the barn.

73
Gary  K4FMX

> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:towertalk-
> bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Don Havlicek
> Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 10:25 AM
> To: Pete Smith
> Cc: TowerTalk@contesting.com; Phil Camera
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding of Amateur Radio installations
> 
> My problem, which I have been mulling over for months now, is somewhat
> unique.
> 
> My electric service is underground, running about 450' from the service
> transformer to the polebarn garage in the rear of the property.  At that
> point there is a SPG for the electric service, but then the power lines,
> again buried, run 70 feet to the house, which is a modular home on
> I-beams mounted upon a cement block foundation.  There is NO electrical
> ground at the house, but the telephone line, also buried from the
> roadside service box [over 200 feet away] has a ground rod driven into
> the soil next to the house.
> The entrance for the electric line and the telephone service are at the
> NE of the house.
> My radio room is located near the SW corner of the house, and I will
> have all lines [coax, rotor control, etc] running out through a vent
> panel in the foundation immediately below the radio room.
> What I am considering is adding a SPG for the RF cables, etc., at or
> near to the vent panel in the foundation at the feed-through point.
> Not sure if having the SPG for RF very distant from the electric service
> SPG is inviting problems.  [yes, I know, that's contradictory, as you
> cannot have TWO SPGs.]
> Any thoughts on this would be invited, as I will be installing all my
> towers, radial systems, antennas, etc., in the Spring.
> Don
> N8DE
> Edmore, MI


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