Why does my antenna need grounding?
 

I just bought a new Sangean PRD2 radio. It has provision for an external
antenna which I hooked up. There is also a terminal for a ground wire. Is
it neccessary?

"wolfee" wrote

I just bought a new Sangean PRD2 radio. It has provision for an external
antenna which I hooked up. There is also a terminal for a ground wire.
Is
it neccessary?


Probably not. A single wire antenna connected directly to a portable radio
is going to exhibit the highest form of noise and static known to radio
listening ;-) Grounding a portable radio is going to do very little to
affect this, but it could help and certainly won't hurt to try. But ground
it to what? Certainly not your house AC grounding system. If you are going
to the trouble of making a ground rod connection available to your radio
then why not also use a coax feedline and a matching (Balun) transformer
according to the estimated impedance of your wire antenna? That way you can
truly "ground" the shield of the coax at the Balun, and grounding the radio
itself will have some purpose then.

Good luck,

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, VA