jawod wrote:
After reading the archive regarding 2nd floor grounding, a couple of
questions.

Outside of sufficiently thick gauge wire and proper depth to grounding
rod. Are there any ELECTRICAL (nonRF) issues left to resolve for a 2nd
floor ground?

Several articles referred to long grounding lines being close to 1/4
wavelength as being a problem. Is this eliminated with balanced feedline?

Thanks,

john

1) Make sure you have a good connection from equipment cases to AC Power
main ground/earth. I use a 1/2 inch copper pipe on the table where my
station is mounted. Each piece of equipment on the table, transceivers,
amplifiers, power supplies, computer, are individually bonded to this
copper pipe. This 1/2 inch copper pipe is then connected to earth ground
by a #6 AWG wire run directly to the electrical service panel where it
is connected to the earth connection.

2) If you use a 1/4 wavelength, or equivalent, vertical antenna you need
a counterpoise, often called 'ground', at the base of the antenna.

3) A balanced feedline is used for a balanced antenna, e.g. dipole etc.,
to minimize RF coupling to the transmission line. The balanced line
needs to run away from the antenna for a minimum of 1/4 wavelength at
right angles to be effective. A dipole fed with coax cable needs a balun
to produce a balanced signal to the antenna. The coax should also run
away from the antenna at right angles for 1/4 wavelength to be effective
in minimizin current on the coax. If you need to run from the antenna at
less than 1/4 wavelength then a series of chokes or ferrites should be
used to keep RF out of the house. These chokes/ferrites should be
mounted at least 1/4 wavelength from the antenna.