Drakefan wrote:
Michael wrote:
Hiya...

Been a while since I posted here. For the sake of noise suppression
as affective lightning protection is almost hopeless without gas
tubes, what would be the minimum gauge wire that you could use for a
ground from the radio to a ground spike and from a matching
transformer to a ground spike ??? Yes, I know there is loads of info
on the net, but I would like some active opinions as some recent
discussions I have had on this has been conflicting.

Also... I've gotten conflicting opinions on this one too. If you have
a long wire or beverage set up on a matching transformer like the ICE
180, there is a ground receptacle on the matching transformer. Would
you:

A. Use a separate ground wire from the matching transformer to the
ground spike and another separate ground wire from the receiver to the
ground spike ???

or

B. Use one single ground wire from the receiver's ground port going
up to the matching transformer and then to the ground spike ???


I know this stuff is antenna-101, but I'm interested to see what the
opinions here are

Thanx in advance !!!

Mike D.
Northern NJ

First, the balun shouldn't be up in the air. It should be close to the
ground at the lower end of the vertical downlead wire of the inverted-L
antenna. Then you can use a short, less than three feet, length of
grounding wire from the balun to the rod. The ground wire should be at
least 10-gauge, preferably larger, like 6 or 4-gauge. The coax should
run on or in the ground to the house and then to the radio. This will
prevent it from picking up noise on the coax shield, which can happen
when the coax is up in the air. It's not absolutely necessary to ground
the coax shield again near the radio if you follow the above advice.

Code requires that the transmission line be grounded at the point where
it enters the structure.

The point of an MLB is that the antenna be terminated up in the air,
away from electrical noise. The downlead should be shielded.