[TowerTalk] RE: Station ground

[Ed Hansen]

I am following this subject with great interest since a tower and a new "ham shack" (relocating to another room in the same house) are in the near future.  I operate mobile mostly on 2 meters when I travel but am headed for more HF.  My concern now is that I have never heard of a floating ground in a vehicle where the radio is tied directly to the battery (both leads fused of course).  I operate an old 2 meter transceiver dedicated to APRS, with a GPS, laptop computer, cell phone, and sometimes a refrigerated cooler, along with a Yaesu FT-100D "floating" under the back seat of the cab.  With the exception of a tiny bit of ignition noise in the FT-100 I haven't had any problems in the 2 years I have run this way.  From the tone of this subject I should be exploding any minute while driving down the road.  (Well maybe I stretched that a bit).  Yes, this year I am going to rewire the truck because I am not entirely comfortable with the arrangement, but not because I have had any problems.  The base station is a subject for an other time.  What I am wondering, is this problem wide spread.  Is there a lot of problem  with others.  Maybe I am reading more into this than there really is.    

Ed.........KC7KCU