[TenTec] Earth those feeders

Stuart Rohre rohre at arlut.utexas.edu
Mon Sep 12 13:18:40 PDT 2011


I will echo the comment about the SWL case being similar to the ham 
station.  It is amazing how much current even modest antennas and 
feeders can conduct momentarily.  If that feeder is robustly grounded, 
the surge can be conducted out of the shack to a direct earth ground and 
minimize the damage.

With so many chassis these days connected to AC third wire ground, it is 
all the more necessary to isolate the feeders from those radios.

Usually the grounding bus and receptacles would be located on an outside 
wall to insure straight thru passage of the earth lead in a direct and 
without sharp turns manner.

Interior shacks present more difficulty.  But, I mentioned having a 
disconnect on the outside of the building.  That would be a way to 
divorce the feeders from any grounding opportunity in the shack that 
might carry large currents.  Sure, it is a bit more work, but believe 
you me, the aggravation of replacing circuit board ground trace that was 
vaporized, and fixing blown surge suppressors will convince one to have 
a bit of inconvenience in getting on the air, vs. losing equipment to 
surges and shorts.

Stuart Rohre
K5KVH


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