BNB Sound wrote:
The National Electrical Code (NEC) specifies that there be two
grounding points for a residential system. That can mean either two
ground rods, six feet apart, connected to the panel with a continuous
loop of wire, or a single ground rod in cases where there is municipal
water, and the second ground source is the water main coming in, on
the road side of the meter. The gas line also needs to be grounded to
the panel.

Grounding the gas line here would be an exercise in futility. A metal
pipe goes into the ground just outside my home. It is three feet long.
It then connects to a plastic gas line which goes under U.S. Route 250
and runs to a gas meter about 100 yards away.


All that NEC stuff is important to check to make sure you're setup is
electrically safe. As for station grounding, it's not usually a good
idea to use the electrical system ground rods for your RF grounds.
Your rig, tuner, amps, etc, should all be grounded to a single buss
with the shortest possible wires, then a large chunk of wire, #6 or
better, should run as directly as possible to a separate 8' ground
rod. If you have a tower, you should drive at least one 8 footer at
the base and ground it there. There's no limit to the number of ground
rods you can have for RF grounds, they're less than $10 from a
distributor and well worth the effort.

That's a very, very bad idea. If your shack ground is not tied to your
electrical ground and a near miss strikes power lines, the shack ground
and your electrical ground will be at very different potentials. Your
radio gear will be right in the middle.


I've heard of hams setting up
verticals with very minimal radials, just driving several ground rods.

I've heard of it too, but it is another very bad idea. There is simply
no way that driven ground rods can substitute for a radial screen. They
are intended to do different things.

But somewhere along the line somebody in the ham groups stated that
the National Electrical Code states that there shall be one and *only
one* grounding point per power drop and the neighborhood code cops and
the insurance companies reportedly get stiff about it.

The answer to that is that if there is more than one they must be
connected. The methods differ depending on the location of services in
the structures and around the property. An electrician following the
NEC would have done this during the installation and (hopefully) the
inspector would have signed off on it. Ground rods for RF equipment
SHOULD NOT be connected in any way to the electrical system ground
rods.

That's simply incorrect and dangerous. I have connected my shack ground
to my electrical ground with some great big honkin' copper wire. You
may have as many different ground rods as you like. You should connect
all of them to a single point.

Dave K8MN