[TowerTalk] Grounding

[john at kk9a.com]

Lightning is very good at finding a path to ground. make it a more
desirable one.

John KK9A
Sent via the Samsung Galaxy 7 edge, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.


On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 9:37 AM Chuck Dietz <w5prchuck at gmail.com> wrote:

> I had everything disconnected but the ground and a clock on top of an amp.
> Lightning surge came through the power lines, through the clock and in to
> the amp on its way to ground.
> Now I disconnect the ground.
>
> Chuck W5PR
>
> On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 8:01 AM <john at kk9a.com> wrote:
>
>> What ground?  Do you use a seperate ground going from your radio
>> chassis to a ground rod? I have my equipment bonded together but no RF
>> ground and no RFI issues.
>>
>> John  KK9A/4
>>
>>
>> K9MA wrote:
>>
>>
>> My theory has always been that, with the station equipment well bonded
>> together, it is safe to leave the ground connected, as long as
>> EVERYTHING else is disconnected. That leaves no path for current to flow
>> through anything. I can disconnect the transmitting antennas with one
>> coax, all the control cables and rx antennas with another big connector,
>> and power with one 120 and one 240 V plug. That just leaves the ethernet
>> cable, which I try not to forget.
>>
>> In any case, my primary goal is to prevent a fire, and disconnecting the
>> ground from the equipment probably wouldn't help there. I hope I never
>> have to test that theory.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Scott K9MA
>>
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>