I agree that you should at the very least take K9STH's advice regarding
lightning with a grain of salt. There is some good advice about
grounding, but there is also some bad advice, and most of his theories
about lightning have been replaced in the last 20 years among the
scientific community.

Also, the way I see it, we ground our gear for low noise and good
radiated signals. NEC grounds things for safety and lightning
protection. What constitutes a "good" ground system may differ
according to which viewpoint you adopt.

On 23 Apr 2005 07:53:03 -0700, "
wrote:

I agree that you should at the very least take K9STH's advice regarding
lightning with a grain of salt. There is some good advice about
grounding, but there is also some bad advice, and most of his theories
about lightning have been replaced in the last 20 years among the
scientific community.

Is there a good layman's book on grounding amateur gear? Ask 10 hams a
grounding question and you get 11 answers :-)

bob
k5qwg



Also, the way I see it, we ground our gear for low noise and good
radiated signals. NEC grounds things for safety and lightning
protection. What constitutes a "good" ground system may differ
according to which viewpoint you adopt.

"Bob Miller" wrote
Is there a good layman's book on grounding amateur gear? Ask 10 hams a
grounding question and you get 11 answers :-)

bob
k5qwg

Bob, it gets even worse when total lightning protection systems are
involved.

This book below (Grounding v. Bonding) is an excellent fundamental approach
to the interrelationship between the two. Add to it the $35 NFPA-780 (Oct
2004 is current edition) Standard for Installation of Lightning Protection
Systems, and you will be a long way toward understanding how to best protect
equipment in your individual circumstances.

http://www.mikeholt.com/bookcategory...&from=Products


Best regards,

Jack

On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 19:31:18 GMT, Bob Miller
wrote:

On 23 Apr 2005 07:53:03 -0700, "
wrote:

I agree that you should at the very least take K9STH's advice regarding
lightning with a grain of salt. There is some good advice about
grounding, but there is also some bad advice, and most of his theories
about lightning have been replaced in the last 20 years among the
scientific community.

Is there a good layman's book on grounding amateur gear? Ask 10 hams a
grounding question and you get 11 answers :-)

bob
k5qwg



Also, the way I see it, we ground our gear for low noise and good
radiated signals. NEC grounds things for safety and lightning
protection. What constitutes a "good" ground system may differ
according to which viewpoint you adopt.

Yes, got to the library and copy sections 250 and 800 of the National
Electric Code (NEC). It is quite clear and if you have passed element
two you should be able to understand the language.

I'll repeat myself because it bears repeating. All grounds are to be
bonded together with at least #6 wire and mechanical connections (no
soldering).

Russ

Bob Miller wrote:
"Is there a good layman`s book on grounding amateur gear?"

The ARRL Handbook for starters, My newest is the 1987 edition. It has
several pages of good suggestions on "The National Electrical Code",
protective devices, and lightning protection. They suggest books and
pamphlets to request for planning your installation.

There is no big disparity between lightning protection and electrical
noise abatement. The techniques are almost the same. I`ve checked
lightning prepared status by checking noise rejection capability.
Lightning is an enormous noise.

Want complete protection? Seal your protected treasure inside a seamless
box constructed of highly-conductive sturdy material. No wires enter and
no wires leave. No noise, no lightning, and no damage to the contents
either.
Now, bring wires through the box but use a series impedance in each (a
choke), and use a shunt admittance (a capacitor) between each wire and
the box. Better yet, confine the area where wires enter and leave the
box to a small space or window so that all the ground connections can be
made in the same spot. Again, no noise, no lightning, and no damage to
contents inside the box.

It works. I`ve done it.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

I should have advised you to clamp the voltage on each wire entering
your lightning protected enclosure to a safe maximum voltage for that
wire. The ARRL Handbook mentions several appropriate devices, fast
acting and proper breakdown voltage range to protect your equipment.
These protectors are used in addition to the filtering which is used for
low-level noise elimination.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

Richard Harrison wrote:
"Is there a good layman`s book on grounding amateur gear?"

The ARRL Handbook for starters, My newest is the 1987 edition. It has
several pages of good suggestions on "The National Electrical Code",
protective devices, and lightning protection. They suggest books and
pamphlets to request for planning your installation.

There is also plenty of information on the ARRL website. The ARRL
Technical Information Service contains good information on a huge range
of technical questions:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/

For an overview on grounding, and how the separate requirements for
mains safety, lightning and RF grounding join together, start with:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/grounding.html

Searching the whole ARRL site for "grounding" brings up other references
as well.

By the way, almost all homes in the UK are categorically exempt from
specific lightning protection requirements in the Wiring Regulations...
but that also means we are not very lightning-conscious, and UK radio
amateurs tend to be very careless about bonding of mains earths and RF
earths. This is a case where we'd do much better to follow US earthing
principles, if we possibly can.


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

"Ian White G3SEK" wrote in message
...
Richard Harrison wrote:
"Is there a good layman`s book on grounding amateur gear?"

The ARRL Handbook for starters, My newest is the 1987 edition. It has
several pages of good suggestions on "The National Electrical Code",
protective devices, and lightning protection. They suggest books and
pamphlets to request for planning your installation.

There is also plenty of information on the ARRL website. The ARRL
Technical Information Service contains good information on a huge range of
technical questions:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/

For an overview on grounding, and how the separate requirements for mains
safety, lightning and RF grounding join together, start with:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/grounding.html

Searching the whole ARRL site for "grounding" brings up other references
as well.

By the way, almost all homes in the UK are categorically exempt from
specific lightning protection requirements in the Wiring Regulations...
but that also means we are not very lightning-conscious,

I like that "we" bit.
"We" of the U.K are quite aware that if the U.K.was "careless"
Condoleeza Rice or Bush would not hesitate to quickly let us know.
And would threaten the U.K. with sanctions if it did not come
to heel and change it's practices with lightning speed..
Art



and UK radio
amateurs tend to be very careless about bonding of mains earths and RF
earths. This is a case where we'd do much better to follow US earthing
principles, if we possibly can.


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

Art Unwin wrote:
"We" of the U.K. are quite aware that if the U.K. was "careless"
Condoleza Rice or Bush would not hesitate to quickly let us know."

I think not. No "shock and awe" for our U.K. peerless allies.

The U.S. just got a head start on lightning from our Bold Ben Franklin.
Luckily he survived. Then, after a Louisiana Purcjase and wars with
Mexico and Spain, it won tropical territories which are rife with
lightning. I know the sun never sets on the British Empire. It`s just
not the same when lightning tradhes some Zulu`s hut as when it strikes
your own digs. Lots of Americans live in Tampa-St. Petersburg. This one
spot holds the world record for lightning. I think the U.S.A. had more
motivation to mitigate the lightning problem.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

In article ,
Bob Miller wrote:

Is there a good layman's book on grounding amateur gear? Ask 10 hams a
grounding question and you get 11 answers :-)

Well, I won't claim that it's layman-level or that it's small, but I
do keep a copy of the U.S. Government's military handbook on grounding
on my server's website:

http://www.radagast.org/~dplatt/hamr...-grounding.pdf

Lots of good information there about ground rods, bonding, making
solid connections between elements of the ground system, etc.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
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