Grounding parallel feed (ladder line) ?
 

If I feed an antenna with a parallel feed where do I ground the
station?? At the transceiver after the tuner??

---------- -----------
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | +---+ +-----+
| ===========|TUN|======| TX |
+---+ +-----+
|
|
|
\ /
V

Or should I be grounding at the tuner or one side of the feed line??

I intend to build a "spark plug" type lighting arrestor.

Thanks,

de ka2pbt

Grounding parallel feed (ladder line) ?
 

In article ,
Rob Roschewsk wrote:

If I feed an antenna with a parallel feed where do I ground the
station?? At the transceiver after the tuner??

---------- -----------
| |
| |
| |
| |
| | +---+ +-----+
| ===========|TUN|======| TX |
+---+ +-----+
|
|
|
\ /
V

Or should I be grounding at the tuner or one side of the feed line??

Most authorities I've read say that the transceiver, and the tuner
chassis, should both be securely bonded to the same grounding point.

You don't want to ground either side of the balanced feedline, as this
would deliberately un-balance it, and defeat the purpose/function of
the balun at the output of the tuner.

I intend to build a "spark plug" type lighting arrestor.

A worthwhile precaution!

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

Grounding parallel feed (ladder line) ?
 

"Rob Roschewsk" wrote in message
. ..
I intend to build a "spark plug" type lighting arrestor.

These are available commercially. I have one but have not installed it.
Part of the difficulty is the voltage at which they fire! Imagine what
it could do to tuner and possibly transceiver. Best to ground the
antenna directly outside the shack when it is not in use and hope!

Ed, N5EI
Thanks,

de ka2pbt

Grounding parallel feed (ladder line) ?
 

I intend to build a "spark plug" type lighting arrestor.

These are available commercially. I have one but have not installed it.
Part of the difficulty is the voltage at which they fire! Imagine what
it could do to tuner and possibly transceiver. Best to ground the
antenna directly outside the shack when it is not in use and hope!

Ed, N5EI
Thanks,

de ka2pbt

The use of a Balun, whether in the tuner or not, will allow your twinlead to
actually be at DC ground.

Grounding parallel feed (ladder line) ?
 

Edward Feustel wrote:
"Rob Roschewsk" wrote in message
. ..

I intend to build a "spark plug" type lighting arrestor.


These are available commercially. I have one but have not installed it.
Part of the difficulty is the voltage at which they fire! Imagine what
it could do to tuner and possibly transceiver. Best to ground the
antenna directly outside the shack when it is not in use and hope!

The idea behind this sort of device isn't necessarily to protect the
equipment, but is to provide a high current path for a direct hit, so
that the house doesn't burn down.

With coax, the shield is theoretically connected to a safety ground
outside the house, so that's the path.

With a balanced line, not connected to ground anywhere, there's no path
for the lightning impulse to take, except through the gear inside. Put a
0.05 inch gap to ground and it will easily conduct the several tens of
kA, with not a huge voltage (once the arc is struck, the voltage will be
down in the tens of volts range, and you could set the gap to whatever
works (say, around 500V).