[TowerTalk] Station Ground

[K8RI on Tower Talk]

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tom Rauch" <w8ji at contesting.com>
>
>>
>> If that lead through some error (almost certainly by a
>> goofball at the local repair garage) somehow becomes
>> unbol;ted from the very large bolt securing it,  the
>> electrical system in your vehicle will generally be toast
>> long before the radio has a problem. That's why you use a
>> negative lead fuse in a mobile when grounding a radio
>> (stupidly) directly to a battery post connection.
>>
>
> Okay, I'll bite, Tom. Why is it stupid to run the negative
> lead from my rig directly to the battery? I did this in my
> truck. Is the main concern failure of the main chassis

My manual says to run the negative lead directly to the battery, 
particularly with todays unibody construction.

All it takes is a weak weld giving way or a rusty joint causing the path to 
change

At least they are no longer welded up on an assembly line of people.  I 
worked on one of those over 40 years ago and I can testify there were 
certainly more than a couple of bad welds that went through. <:-))

Roger Halstead (K8RI, EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
N833R, World's Oldest Debonair (S# CD-2)
www.rogerhalstead.com
> to battery negative connection so that the rig power
> return becomes the power return for the entire vehicle
> electrical system? I did fuse the negative lead. If I change
> this where should I connect the power return lead (its
> easy enough to do)? Should I connect to any chassis metal
> near the battery, the engine block, or are you advocating
> that I only run one wire back to the battery from the rig
> and use the vehicle chassis as the power return?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike, W4EF....................
>
>
>
>
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