[TowerTalk] station grounding question

[Ian White GM3SEK]

Richard W. Harris wrote:
>Hi,
>A simple question on station grounding.  I have a copper wall plate for 
>common grounding of all of my station equipment.  I have 2" wide copper 
>strap to connect each piece of gear to the copper panel.  Most pieces 
>of equipment have a simple bolt for grounding.  Seems to me that a 
>single/small bolt connection to the copper strap is not a very good 
>connection. Any suggestions here?  Should I simply be connecting the 2" 
>copper strap to the grounding bolt of each piece of gear or is there a 
>better method?

Don't worry - INSIDE the station, you are not expecting large lightning 
currents in the RF ground bonding, so the grounding bolts on the backs 
of the rigs are already quite big enough.

The purpose of ground bonding inside the station is to keep all the 
equipment at the same potential as the panel, and you have already done 
the right thing by using a wide, low-inductance strap for almost the 
whole length of the run. What you use for the last few inches as a 
jumper can hardly matter.

(But W3LPL is also right about braid being a poor RF conductor, which 
gets worse with age as surface oxidation separates the strands. A solid 
strap of the same width - no matter how thin - is always a better 
conductor.)


-- 
73 from Ian GM3SEK         'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek