[TowerTalk] New shack on the 2nd floor grounding issues

[Jim Brown]

On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 19:46:18 -0400, Gary Schafer wrote:

>You will never get an RF ground that far away. Why do you think you need one
>anyway?

Exactly!  Connections to earth are important for lightning protection,
but have little to do with radio systems. Radio systems work just fine
in a 747 -- have you ever seen one trailing a ground wire as it flies
around the world?  

Grounding to reduce noise?  A power line noise filter will dump noise
onto that 20 ft long set of ground wiring, which in turn will act as an
antenna (you say "ground wire," but mother nature says antenna), and
that "ground wire" will radiate the noise so that your ham antennas can
pick it up. 

Long wire antennas need some sort of  counterpoise to receive the RF
current (think of it acting as the other half of a dipole), but again,
that has nothing to do with earth. 

Jim Brown  K9YC