Dave Platt wrote:

SNIPPED

*yoicks*!

The latter, I can believe is common practice.

The former - tying the powerline neutral directly to the case -
strikes me as being *extremely* contrary to electrical code and common
sense.

It happens at the service panel! White [COMMON] is connected to the non
current carrying bare wire at a many input terminal block. The block is
then connected to an 8 foot ground rod installed by the utility or your
electrician.

It'd turn the supply into a deathtrap-waiting-to-happen if it
were plugged into an outlet having the hot and neutral reversed... and
these are (alas) not at all uncommon.

Agree, I found three miswired circuits in this house. I was present at
the house inspection and ran the tests myself. The mis-wiring was
corrected the day we moved in. [Radio Shack sells a simple tester for
this. It is worth checking every circuit in your house or apartment].


Now, having the utility power safety ground wired directly to the
case, I can very well believe... this is quite common.

Maybe my terms are not up to date.

My electrical service connection is 3 wire 240 volts AC at 60 Hz. Within
the distribution panel RED is connected to one feed; BLACK is connected
to the other feed and white is connected to the common connection
[return]. The common connection is then distributed throughout the house
as the bare wire in standard wiring. The common, white and return,
connection is connected to an external earth connection [ground] by an 8
foot ground rod.. So, the WHITE wire serves as return for both RED and
BLACK circuits and has a single earth connection. So, your 3 prong
socket contains connections to power as follows: HOT [either RED or
BLACK] circuit, RETURN [WHITE] and GREEN [GROUND] [supposedly zero
current carrying. A GFI works on this part of the connection].

In the ASTRON RS 35 the primary wiring has the GREEN connected to the
chassis. The BLACK/WHITE go to the transformer primary. This is fine.

The secondary, transformer isolated, has the 13.8 volt return connected
to the chassis. It is now possible for the chassis to become part of the
current carrying circuit, 13.8 volt return to utility WHITE wire to
groud wire. The 13.8 volt return now runs to the ICOM 756 Pro II, ICOM
746 and Kenwood TM-G707. The cases of the three radios and the ASTRON
are connected to a common return on the operating table [1/2 inch copper
pipe that connects directly to the service panel common return/ground
point]. The cases of the three radios are connected together by the
braid on the various lengths of coax and the 13.8 volt return. ERGO, a
ground loop among the 13.8 volt return, the coax braid, equipment cases
and the utility ground.

With a nearby lightning strike that blew the utility 3 phase transformer
and affected approximately 50 consumers there are several possible
causes of trouble. Among these are imbalance in utility service [i.e.
the 240 into the house becomes seriously imbalanced] a lightning induced
magnetic transient that couples to all ground loops, or my system was
still connected to antennas and power.

I had ALL connections to antennas and power plugs removed except the 1/2
inch copper pipe earth connection at the service panel. My neighbors
lost garage door openers, multiple tv sets, numerous telephone circuits,
numerous internet circuits, COMCAST had to rewire approximately 1/4 mile
of cable tv in front of the house, several homes lost expensive stereo
and sound lab setups. In my house all ground fault interuptors
activated. And two circuits in my PRO II exploded to charcoal with dust
and stench. The LAN blew up, and one computer was lost.

My station was the equivalent of being mounted on a copper sheet, each
chassis connected to the copper sheet with bond wires, the 13.8 VDC
return connected to the copper sheet [making a loop into the circuits]
and the copper sheet was/is directly connected to earth/ground at the
power utility panel.

Since I was not connected to POWER or antennas, and the connection to
utility common and earth ground are installed to code [circa 1978], I
concluded a ground loop that I subsequently found and measured [after
the fact of course] was the susceptibility.

Conclusion: Nearby or direct strike lightning causes havoc. Solution:
have good insurance. I recovered replacement costs for all except the
depreciated computer. I have a specific INSURANCE SCHEDULE on my radio
and camera equipment.