[TowerTalk] Ground Clamps

[Mark Spencer]

Thanks for your comments.
 
I believe all of the radios and other radio related gear was turned on when I checked for currrent flow, but none of them were transmitting.   
 
If I can get my hands on a clamp on RF Ammeter it would be interesting to see if there is any measurable current flowing in the ground wire when I am transmitting.    I doubt my fluke clamp on meter will work well at HF and above (:
 
The ground is intended to provide a certain degree of lightning protection (ie. hopefully divert enough energy to prevent the house from burning down, and show my insurance company that I had some lightning protection in place and complied with the commonly accepted practices as opposed to protecting my ham gear..) and is not intentionally used as an RF ground, but as the shields of all of the coax cables are connected to it (at the base of most of the antennas and / or where the coax enters the house) then it may be carrying some current when the transmitters are on.
 
It's also not clear to me if current flow thru the ground wire would cause the effects I am seeing.  For some reason at the time I was thinking there might have been an equipment fault that was causing current to flow the the coax shields then thru the ground wire and then back to the electrical service ground.    (The ground wire has it's own burried grouind plate where it enters the ground, then it continues underground to one of the electrical service ground rods where it is connected to the electrical service ground.)
 
Regards
 
Mark


--- On Mon, 7/7/08, Richards <jruing at ameritech.net> wrote:

From: Richards <jruing at ameritech.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Ground Clamps
To: mspencer12345 at yahoo.ca
Cc: "towertalk reflector" <towertalk at contesting.com>, "Alan NV8A" <nv8a at att.net>, "Roy & Peggy Bonvillian" <wd5dbv at bellsouth.net>
Received: Monday, July 7, 2008, 9:29 PM

Did you test when
      1)  the radio was turned on?   and/or
      2) when you were transmitting?

Maybe it is different if either of those aspects change...?
(Don't know, myself, just asking...)

              ===============  K8JHR  =============

Mark Spencer wrote:
>  
> I have put a clamp on ammeter on the ground wire and can't 
measure any current flowing thru the ground wire


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