[RFI] Daisy chain vs Common Ground in Shack

[Jim Brown]

Sean,

In the new ARRL book on Grounding and Bonding, you will find me credited 
as a contributor,  you will find my methods cited, and you will find a 
link to the slides for my tutorial on the topic. The book is by Ward 
Silver, N0AX, who also edits the ARRL Handbook and Antenna Book.

The primary my recommendation differs from prior "wisdom" on the topic 
is that the prior wisdom ignored the issue of leakage current from the 
AC power system, which is how power line "buzz" couples into equipment 
that is interconnected with other equipment. That prior wisdom depends 
on the fictional concept of a "ground loop" as the cause of that buzz, 
ignores the fact that the shield of audio cables between equipment 
creates a loop with a "star ground," and is ignorant of a widespread 
cause of both buzz and RFI called "The Pin One Problem."

My method solves all of those problems, AND satisfies grounding and 
bonding requirements for RF and lightning protection.

FACT -- the ONLY way in which a LOOP affects a system is if it is in a 
magnetic field (from a poorly shielded power transformer, or in a place 
with improper AC wiring). In both of those situations, the received 
noise will be pure 60 Hz (hum) not buzz (triplen harmonics of 60 Hz -- 
180, 360, 540, 720, etc).

73, Jim K9YC

On Wed,6/7/2017 12:50 PM, Sean Waite wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I was reading through a lot of K9YC's articles on grounding and RFI. It
> seems that he recommends daisy chaining ground together in the shack, and
> then running a single cable from the last point out to the common house
> ground. His reasoning seems sound (combined with choking off coax to
> eliminate ground loops), but it goes against everything you hear about
> station grounding.
>
> Is this the correct thing to do? Am I just misreading what he's writing? A
> lot of RFI topics seem to be borderline magic in the ham community and I'm
> trying to unravel the myth from reality.
>
> Thanks and 73,
> Sean Waite, WA1TE
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