Station grounding question:
 

My area is S central KS and according to other ops,
my ground condx are good. Around my house at the
corners are 8' ground rods. They are all tied together
with 10 awg insulated solid copper wire. The phone
& cable system is grounded there, too.

My Amateur ground system ties into this network
about 25 feet from my FT-840's power supply. All
station equipment (PS, SWR bridge, HF rig) is grounded
to this bus. Every connection is single purpose, I.E.,
each piece of equipment has it's own line going to
a central connection point.

The wire from this common goes to a junction where
it meets a similar line coming from my PC's case and
joins the main ground bus.

All lines near the HF setup are 1/4" braid. All lines
running to the exterior bus are 12 awg copper. The
bus is 10 awg copper.

Before connecting up this ground, TX'ing at 100w
on 20m would shut down my computer and on 17
or 10m would lock up my mouse. Now, with a good
ground (I think), everything is OK except if I go above
40w in the CW portion of 10m - then my mouse
sometimes locks up. It's a PS-2 optical mouse.

Now you know the facts - here's the question:

Is there anything I can do to improve this situation?
I'm getting out VERY well on simple dipoles & 100w
but of course, I'm greedy - I want to install an amp
and go legal limit but I'm worried my 12 awg lines
would not be enough for 1.5kw.

Any suggestions?

Ken KG0WX

This response has nothing to do with your question, but I note in your
ground system description a glaring ommission; you didn't say if your
antenna system was protected. Do you have polyphasors in your antenna
lines before they enter the house? If not, therre is a path for lightning
to find your nice ground system.... through your radios.


Ed

This response has nothing to do with your question, but I note in your
ground system description a glaring ommission; you didn't say if your
antenna system was protected. Do you have polyphasors in your antenna
lines before they enter the house? If not, therre is a path for lightning
to find your nice ground system.... through your radios.


Ed

This response has nothing to do with your question, but I note in your
ground system description a glaring ommission; you didn't say if your
antenna system was protected. Do you have polyphasors in your antenna
lines before they enter the house? If not, therre is a path for lightning
to find your nice ground system.... through your radios.


Ed

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 12:00:21 -0500, "Ken Bessler"
wrote:

...
Before connecting up this ground, TX'ing at 100w
on 20m would shut down my computer and on 17
or 10m would lock up my mouse. Now, with a good
ground (I think), everything is OK except if I go above
40w in the CW portion of 10m - then my mouse
sometimes locks up. It's a PS-2 optical mouse.

Now you know the facts - here's the question:

Is there anything I can do to improve this situation?
...
Ken KG0WX

Unfortunately RF gets both in and out of numerous parts
of the PC. Have you opened up the mouse and checked
for shielded cable, and does it connect to the PC chassis?

In the past I've added small value capacitors to the keyboard
microcontroller board to cut RF leakage. Perhaps the same
type of thing could be added to your mouse. I wouldn't
go more than .001 microfarad to avoid rounding off the TTL
signals too much.

73,
Jim

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 12:00:21 -0500, "Ken Bessler"
wrote:

...
Before connecting up this ground, TX'ing at 100w
on 20m would shut down my computer and on 17
or 10m would lock up my mouse. Now, with a good
ground (I think), everything is OK except if I go above
40w in the CW portion of 10m - then my mouse
sometimes locks up. It's a PS-2 optical mouse.

Now you know the facts - here's the question:

Is there anything I can do to improve this situation?
...
Ken KG0WX

Unfortunately RF gets both in and out of numerous parts
of the PC. Have you opened up the mouse and checked
for shielded cable, and does it connect to the PC chassis?

In the past I've added small value capacitors to the keyboard
microcontroller board to cut RF leakage. Perhaps the same
type of thing could be added to your mouse. I wouldn't
go more than .001 microfarad to avoid rounding off the TTL
signals too much.

73,
Jim

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 12:00:21 -0500, "Ken Bessler"
wrote:

...
Before connecting up this ground, TX'ing at 100w
on 20m would shut down my computer and on 17
or 10m would lock up my mouse. Now, with a good
ground (I think), everything is OK except if I go above
40w in the CW portion of 10m - then my mouse
sometimes locks up. It's a PS-2 optical mouse.

Now you know the facts - here's the question:

Is there anything I can do to improve this situation?
...
Ken KG0WX

Unfortunately RF gets both in and out of numerous parts
of the PC. Have you opened up the mouse and checked
for shielded cable, and does it connect to the PC chassis?

In the past I've added small value capacitors to the keyboard
microcontroller board to cut RF leakage. Perhaps the same
type of thing could be added to your mouse. I wouldn't
go more than .001 microfarad to avoid rounding off the TTL
signals too much.

73,
Jim